The role of personal crisis in the spiritual journey

Continued from previous posts At some point, usually initiated by a personal crisis or some other challenge, you will be brought face to face with a confrontation between your will and God's. Some have called this experience, "The Wall" (see Janet Hagberg and Robert Guelich in their book, The Critical Journey).

In this confrontation, a subtle idolatry is exposed---an idolatry you've been able to cover up until now, that's remained hidden from your eyes, thought you've been bumping into it for quite some time. The idolatry is this: you want God so long as you can have God on your terms, so long as you really don't have to change in the deep places of your life, so long as you ultimately remain in control. This is, in St Paul's words, "Having a form of godliness but denying its power" (2 Timothy 3.5). It is the avoidance of the Cross of Christ. You can believe in all the Cross teaches about sin and salvation, but mere belief isn't what the Cross is all about. The Cross aims at your salvation, your transformation, your death and resurrection spiritually. You must experience the Cross yourself.

When you hit the Wall spiritually, the Cross is no longer an idea or doctrine, something that happened to Jesus long ago. You are united with Christ in his death, and you---if you walk the way of the Cross---will be united with him in his resurrection. Here you release your ego, your false and fallen self, which has tried to play God for too long now. And if you do, you will awakened to a face of God that you've not known up to this point, a depth of intimacy you've only longed for.

to be continued . . .

After Second Awakening what? Advancing in your spiritual journey

Continued from previous posts The fourth stage in the spiritual journey will carry you deeper into your heart. At Stage Four, you're invited by the Holy Spirit to turn inward in order to awaken to the depth of interior intimacy with the Holy Trinity. This doesn't mean you've not tasted God until now. But it does mean that your relationship is moving to a different level. At this stage, you're discovering God all over again. I wrote extensively about this stage last month's newsletter.

Stage Four, "Second Awakening," is a deepening of your experience of the presence of God, but that doesn't mean it's easy. As in any relationship, there are real challenges as the relationship matures. You are not yet who God's destined you to be and God is different from what you once thought God to be.

This tension can cause disillusionment with God, church, and yourself.

Disillusionment with God doesn't mean God is insufficient or the church is failing you; it means, rather, that you must change, and change doesn't come easily because you are now coming face to face with the impediments that stand between you and the God who loves you.

In the posts that follow, I'll describe an experience you will inevitably have at some point as you move through your "Second Awakening."

to be continued . . .

And more on four: what you'll need to move forward

You'll need at least three things to more forward through stage four. First, an awareness that there is a stage beyond Service and Leadership, because without it you'll think something's gone terribly wrong.

Second, patience and compassion with yourself because this stage can be extremely disorienting, even frightening.

And third, a spiritual friendship with someone who is unthreatened by your questions and your expressions of frustration, someone who won't try to fix you, but who understands God's mysterious ways enough to hold you in faith, helping you believe that God is meeting you in the midst of your experience.

A sure sign that you're moving through this stage is the presence of an expanding sense of love, for love is the only thing that can lead you along these later stages of spiritual growth.

To be continued . . .

Still more on stage four: it may seem like you're losing faith

In these last few posts I'm describing the fourth stage of spiritual growth. It's a stage of profound growth that requires competent spiritual guidance. The loosening of old certainties is not a loss of your faith, but an invitation toward deeper, though different conviction. Your search for direction and meaning in life doesn't need to lead you away from the church but can lead you into a deeper life of faith. Your disillusionment with God or religion isn't a sign of their insufficiency or failure; rather, it signals the necessary break from static attachments and religiosity so that you can open up to a new experience of spiritual abundance through faith. This, in turn, leads you to new expressions of service that flow from inextinguishable inner resources rather than from the shoulds and oughts of duty or obligation, or the zeal of newfound enthusiasm.

Along this path, you'll need the guidance of a soul friend to help you keep your bearings.

To be continued . . .

More on stage four: discovering God all over again

In my last post, I wrote that most churches place stage three, "Service and Leadership" at the pinnacle of the Christian life. But if you've followed this series of posts, you'll know that stage three is not even half way along the path of what historic Christianity has understood to be the path to spiritual maturity. That journey leads from First Awakening, through Believing and Belonging, and into Service and Leadership. But it doesn't end there. There comes a point when the Holy Spirit invites a disciple to turn inward again in order to awaken to the depths of interior intimacy with the Holy Trinity.

It's a stage of discovering God all over again.

Sadly, without direction and insight, many who experience this invitation to the deeper life believe instead that they're losing their faith; they become disillusioned with God or they blame the church for not meeting their needs.

To be continued . . .