The God Phase

Many people go through a religious phase where they find God things/religion to be attractive or fascinating.  It makes them feel good.  It is not like a drug which makes you feel good, but then becomes addictive.  The God phase generally passes if one does not cultivate it.  Such people are more about feeling good, and anything that is boring, tedious, out of fashion tends to lose their interest.  Spiritual things require a daily maintenance of prayer and kindness, compassion for tedious people, and all this is too much effort  for someone who simply wants to feel good.  At the monastery I do not look for one great day of feeling good after another.  I wake up grateful for the gift of the day, do my routines, be of service, read, cook, bake, some manual labor, and so forth.  My goal is to be faithful to this community and its daily prayers.  The results are not up to me.  God stuff is not about results of which I have no control.  It is about showing up faithfully...as in discipline.  "Being in the mood" has no use here.