Reactions to Wherever you are.. are bringing insights into people’s journeys. One thing I’ve noticed, (which I could have worked out before), is that those who have stopped church involvement are finding the book affirming and helpful. Others maybe not so much.
It’s made me think about what makes the difference for a person between one stage of the journey and the next. While Fowler and others might present the stages as discrete from each other, they do, of course, blur into each other at the edges. I’ve also experienced a kind of cyclical movement for myself where I can revisit former stages depending on the topic. For example, my theological ideas might become quite radical, but I can be fundamentalist about church customs and traditions. It may be that I cling on to those traditions exactly because I feel less secure in other areas of my spirituality. Sometimes in the darkness you need to hang on to what comfort you can find!
This reminds me a little of flying in to Wellington airport (bear with me, all will become clear). There is often turbulence as we approach the land from the sea and the plane is wobbling around up and down and sideways. I comfort myself in those moments that the pilots can choose an average of all those positions and are checking all the time that we are maintaining the appropriate height for each stage of our approach.
It’s kind of like that with faith stages. We may seem to be wobbling around, but somewhere inside, something has clicked which drew us more into the questioning stage, than remaining in the conventional stage – or more into disenchantment than remaining wholly enchanted. (Get the book if you don’t understand these references, see below).
It can be that a shocking event moves us decisively, with no mistake, into the next stage of faith. More often, I suspect, we move more slowly. A series of events, comments, books, people, combine to move us out of conventional faith, out of the enchantment we had felt and into the next phase. What I am working out is that until that has happened, we remain mostly enchanted or mostly conventional.
There is nothing wrong with that, as we all move or don’t move at our own pace and in our own idiosyncratic fashion. There are no prizes for speed in this ‘sport’, there are no technical skill points or artistic impression points (yes I’ve been watching Winter Olympics figure skating and snowboarding). If you can’t do a quadruple jump, you haven’t failed!
So why am I teasing this idea out? It has occurred to me, through recent emails and conversations, that it’s important on our own journeys to find like-minded people to walk with. So, whatever the one event or the conclusion from several events which has moved you into the next stage, seek out others who have experienced that same shift in consciousness. They will know what you are talking about, even if your journey is qualitatively different from theirs. They will ‘get it’. It will help both your journeys to talk with each other. (If there is no one you can find in your neighbourhood, drop me an email and we can chat.)
On the other hand, that very dear friend of yours, with whom you have always talked a lot and shared many deep experiences? They might not have made the same shift as you have. You will not of course, now cut them dead, but you may find that it is best to confide a little less of your new discoveries to them. Those conversations may be saved for the people who have made the shift. Your long term friend? Still good fun, still a stimulating companion, but let the ground of the conversation move to other topics.
You will know what I mean when I say that to move ahead, you sometimes need to employ a sharp knife’s edge to ideas you formerly held dear. The phrase ‘cutting edge’ is not an accident. To get somewhere new we need to slice through some long held knots and ties. Continuing to talk a lot with those long term friends still in the same old place, can dull your faith-knife’s cutting edge. Someone who has not made the same shifts as you will not understand this ruthless-seeming approach to cutting old ties. It’s not ruthless but it is conscious. It seems ruthless to people still unaware of how ideas and assumptions can twine about us like the tendrils on a sweet pea plant, holding us. That holding firm seems like a good idea at first as we struggle to get a foothold in the faith, but it can also hold us back as time goes by.
I know that more conventional believers think that a questioning, seeking person might be in danger of losing their faith. But it takes more trust, I believe, to step out on a journey where you do not know the final destination. Faithfulness is required on the seeking journey, but it is a faithful determination to keep putting one step in front of the other, trusting our Companion and our companions. What an adventure!
In other news…. It was a thrill yesterday to be shown an order of service which had used an affirmation which is in Wherever you are, You are on the Journey. That minister (whom I don’t know personally) had obviously ‘made the shift’ and recognized words they and their congregation needed. It was particularly timely as Progressing the Journey is in the final edits stage. It has not only new words to familiar tunes like the one I posted last week, but also liturgical fragments for different times of the church year, including affirmations. I remember the thrill of discovery I felt finding Dorothy McRae McMahon’s books of liturgy. it would be wonderful if Progressing the Journey provided the same sense of discovery for others. That’s a dream to be made real, I hope. Here’s a taster:
Affirmation and Recognition of Faith Found in Epiphany
Epiphany Year C
We recognise those moments of epiphany
– we’ve all had them –
when we have suddenly realised
everything has changed.
When we have seen deep down inside us
and found there what we did not expect.
Instead of the dark, greedy, grasping selfishness
we have been warned of all our lives,
we have discovered within, instead, light.
Light which children’s drawings sketch around angels
light which softly glows with compassion and welcome,
beckoning us to own our inner rich resource
which is so like God
as to be no different from that we call divine.
We recognise, in those moments of discovery,
in those glimpses of the truth,
we can never be the same again,
even if the waters are deep and dark
we will be led through them
by a loving guide
who is, sometimes, us.
And thankfulness rises deep within.
Go well everyone, befriend intentionally and live courageously,
Susan
Wherever you are, You are on the Journey still available from me at jones.rs@xtra.co.nz. $20 per book and $5.60 for P & P up to 3 copies. I’ll send the bank account number and you send me your street address. Easy-peasy! Loving the emails I’m getting about how people have found it a book which gets them thinking about their own journeys. Let me know how you’re finding it!
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