So there I was sitting in Sacrament meeting today, and I had a cool experience happen. It's that experience that brings with it an "Ooohhhhh, I'd never really thought of that before" type of feeling. The Sacrament was being passed around and the doors to the chapel were closed, when all of the sudden the crowd outside in the foyer began to get very loud. This isn't a new scenario since it happens on a frequent basis, BUT the thought that came to my mind WAS new to me.
As I was sitting there, I thought how about how loud the people outside were and that it took away from the reverence of the Sacrament. Then I thought about how it was good that we had the doors closed, or else the noise would be significantly louder than it already was. Not deep enough for you? Yeah yeah, just listen where I'm going with this...as I thought about how the doors helped to close out noise and create a more sacred and reverent atmosphere, I thought about those who were outside in the foyer who would partake of the Sacrament, were not getting out of the experience what those who were within the confines of the chapel were able to, due to the noise that surrounded them; a noise that was not being muffled or lessened by anything. Often times, the individuals who are out there are those who were not able to make it on time and as a result had to wait until the Sacrament was over before entering the chapel. This made me think of the 10 virgins, those who were prepared and were able to enter in when the time came, and those were not able to due to lack of preparation, procrastination, and other choices.
As I sat there in the chapel I thought to myself, how the Sacrament, and the closing of the doors is actually a very symbolic ordinance of closing out the world and drowning out the noise, allowing ourselves to tune into the still, small voice of the Spirit that often times we do not hear as we are in the midst of all the noise around us. By making certain choices, we place ourselves in this situation once a week to be able to focus on the Savior and renew our covenants with Him, while dwelling in an atmosphere where the Spirit can speak to us, thereby affording us the possibility of greater peace, and happiness than we would find outside of the sanctuary, albeit a brief one.
Anyway, I guess it's not really deep, and I'm sure that this has dawned on many people before, but it was a cool experience because today I had the opportunity to benefit from the reverence of the a environment in which I found myself, thanks to making good choices. It was a welcome experience.
