Certain experiences that have really deepened my understanding of spirituality and motivated me to contribute to society are the instances where I have seen others give their efforts towards society and make their interests less of a priority. When I see other people contributing to society, it encourages me to do the same as I notice the impact that everyone is having and think about how I can have those same types of impacts. There are so many people in this world who do not have the same opportunities as us, so being able to help them gives me that sensation of, “Wow, I really just helped these people” and that really helps me mentally. This also really allows me to feel more of a connection to God as he teaches us to follow in his footsteps with his actions towards others and to lead by example for the many more who follow our footsteps. Another example of a time where my understanding of spirituality deepened is when I had a major leg injury that took me out of sports and other physical activities for over four months. I had lots of time to think over this period of time and I focused a lot on “Is there any good that can come out of this?” or “Will all the hard work I put in go to waste?” This then gave me more motivation into coming out of a major injury in a better place than I was in before and building off of what I had gained. I learned that I would be able to get through any hardship that I would encounter throughout my life and use these teachings to get through any more that could happen in the future. Also, given that I had learned so much through these experiences, I could use it to help others get through times when they believe there are no positive outcomes to the same point that I felt coming out of my hard time. Furthermore, the Lenten season is another time where I can really think about life more spiritually and reflect on what the important aspects of my life are. One Lenten season I spent a lot of my time reading and it felt like a totally different life that I was living in. A few of the books I read were about people and their experiences with God and other stories about the lives of the Saints. Reading about these experiences makes you think about all of the different ways God can impact our lives and how we can turn to God in places other than just church. God is always with us during our lives and all we need to do is to take a little bit of our time to pray and ask God for his help. Learning about other people and their steps towards having God’s help in their life makes you think about all the times where you could have gone to God for help but did not, or all the times where you have gone to God for help. This allows you to reflect and think about the impact God had on you when you did ask for his help and gives you that feeling that he will always be there for you no matter the situation you are in. The way this has deepened my understanding of spirituality is that I have been even more informed that God will always be the most important person in my life and will always be there for me when I need him most. How reading about people and their experiences with God could encourage me to help the people around me is how I could use my own examples of my experiences with God to explain that he is always there to help you, even if it is not all in a book for the world to see. The last experience that had a major impact on my understanding of spirituality and encouraged me to contribute positively to society was when the bishop of Kenya visited our church. This allowed me to encounter a different type of Orthodox life that seemed different to the one we are used to and see how they go about with the same traditions and holidays that we have. We actually had the opportunity for him to stay at our home during his time in Ohio and it was so interesting to see him and his first time with these experiences in America. It really makes you think about the different life that they live in Africa but how they similarly give all of their attention towards God and his teachings. Not only were we able to show him some aspects of our American life, we were able to hear about what goes on in his everyday life. It was so enhancing hearing all of the stories he had for us from his home and the impact these stories had on me. This experience did not only deepen my understanding of spirituality, it made me want to contribute to society because it not only encouraged me to help the people here but even made me think of a time when I could visit his home in Africa. These experiences all had such a huge impact on my understanding of spirituality and all gave me some type of insight on how they can lead to myself having a positive impact on society.
