No.

And yes.

How do we define what physical experiences are also spiritual experiences? It depends on our perspective, motivation, orientation, and intention.

In The Practice of the Presence of God, Brother Lawrence talks about how he experienced God while doing something as mundane as scrubbing the big soup pots at the monastery:

So, likewise, in his business in the kitchen (to which he had naturally a great aversion), having accustomed himself to doing everything there for the love of God, and with prayer upon all occasions, for His grace to do his work well, he had found everything easy, during fifteen years that he had been employed there. (14)

Further, he talks about the denial of the flesh for the support of spiritual pursuit as having little positive effect in itself. Rather, it was his orientation toward God that had positive spiritual effect:

That all bodily mortifications and other exercises are useless, except as they serve to arrive at the union with God by love; that he had well considered this, and found it the shortest way to go straight to Him by a continual exercise of love, and doing all things for His sake. (15)

Not everything that happens in our physical bodies has spiritual benefit– and likewise, not everything that we attempt in our minds has spiritual benefit.  What makes our actions and efforts spiritual is not whether they take place in the physical or mental world but whether they are oriented toward God.

In this way, eating lunch can be spiritual — or not.

Reading scripture can be spiritual — or not.

Washing dishes can be spiritual — or not.

Going to church can be spiritual — or not.

Taking a walk can be spiritual — or not.

Praying can be spiritual — or not.

Having sex can be spiritual — or not.

Singing a hymn can be spiritual — or not.

Even farting can be spiritual — or not.

I don’t know about you, but I have had some of my most profound experiences of God while sitting on the toilet or lounging in the bathtub. It may not be the most “appropriate” setting for meeting the Creator, but our God is not as disturbed by our basic bodily functions as we might have been trained to expect.

When we engage our bodies and minds together in an orientation, a mindset, a focus toward opening ourselves to the counter-cultural and unexpected work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we might just be surprised at the avenues God uses to reach us with words of grace, mercy, conviction, and kindness.

Just like Brother Lawrence, we can learn to experience God while we are performing our least preferred tasks — like washing dishes.  God is ready and willing to meet us in whatever moment we are available and listening — whether we are sitting in the church pew or passing gas in the privacy of our boudoirs.  There is no situation in which God is not capable of entering and showing us more of who God is and who we are because of God’s presence in our lives.

So next time you let one go, take the opportunity to let God speak into and through the basic, bodily experience of being alive in Christ.

You might be surprised what God can do with a little breaking wind!