The Spiritual Life is a Journey
One Thing You Need to Know Occasionally, people who know that I am a Spiritual Director ask me, “What’s the one thing spiritual se...
In the two previous posts we considered how the spiritual life is a journey with two distinct halves, and we went over some of the signs that God might be inviting you into the second half of YOUR spiritual life. You can read more about that here. The checklist, “Signs of Entering the Second Half,” could be particularly helpful if you are trying to determine if you are beginning this transition.
Here, we will explore “How to respond to God’s invitation” into the second half of your spiritual life.
Since most people don’t usually realize these disturbances are an invitation, they usually don’t respond in a way that leads to deepening faith.
Based on my experiences of accompanying souls, those who don’t know how to make the necessary shifts REACT in predictable ways. Often alternating among a few maladaptive patterns. These reactions are understandable, but they waste a lot of time and effort on “guaranteed to fail” strategies. This is time and effort that could be invested toward accepting God’s invitation to a deeper life. See if any of these could describe your failed reactions to the changes you are experiencing.
One common reaction is to blame your own effort for the disturbances in your spiritual life. You think that you must not be doing enough, so you Dig In, Double Down – work harder, and that can easily lead to compulsive overdoing.
The trouble is, just working harder doesn’t usually change anything if you are facing a second half transition.
Another common reaction is to conclude that you don’t need to work harder, but smarter. And you imagine that somewhere “out there” is just the right knowledge, philosophy or technique that would make the difference, if you could just find it. So you “chase the rainbow,” feeling compelled to hungrily read (or at least acquire) any number of promising books, popular seminars, or podcasts. You follow the latest fad teachers, or start attending the exciting new church, or movement.
But, just as you should be getting close to the hidden spiritual treasure… somehow the rainbow evaporates—and you realize, “Oh, this didn’t help.” So, in your dismay, you begin to look around and eventually discover and begin to chase the next rainbow.
Note: These were the ways I reacted to my invitation toward the second half of the spiritual life.
Spoiler alert; They didn’t work!
A third reaction is to act as if nothing has changed – just don’t let on. Try to compartmentalize your discomforts, attempt to ignore whole areas of life-pain and inner longing.
In my spiritual direction and coaching practice, I have encountered some who begin to understand God’s invitation to shift, even taste something of the other half of the spiritual journey, but somehow decide it is too risky, too vulnerable, (Dedicated lay and professional church leaders seem to be particularly prone to this reaction.)
Feeling vulnerable in their role and identity, they try to forget about God’s invitation and just return to “First half of the journey” living, while vainly hoping the internal dissonance and discomfort will go away.
These discomforts do not go away. They are not supposed to go away, because they are signs of God’s invitation. If these things are happening in your life, it may actually be cause to celebrate. God is inviting you further into relationship.
A fourth reaction is to shame yourself. Perhaps you are not a good (enough) person. You may look around and start to feel like “everyone else is okay.” Nobody else seems to be going through what I am going through. It must be Me. What’s WRONG with ME? I must be corrupt. I’ve failed, gone wrong, or am inherently flawed somehow.
This sort of thinking can easily spiral down into paralyzing guilt and shame.
I’ve known others who, at least outwardly, don’t seem to respond to these disturbances at all – except to slowly drift along, then eventually drift away. Personal spiritual practice and public engagement fades. Weekly involvement at church and other spiritual events slowly becomes once a month, then every other month. Eventually, they become “CEO Christians.” (C.E.O. abbrev. – “Christmas and Easter Only”)
Tragically, some abandon their faith altogether, concluding that it does not really work – at least not for them. So, they just give up trying. They walk away from everything that once gave meaning and direction to their life.
Listen, It doesn’t have to go this way! You don’t have to REACT. You can learn to RESPOND in a new way; a way marked by discovery, exploration and intentional engagement
Over the years, I’ve identified six key shifts that counter the six failed reaction patterns. They come up again and again in the lives of those I encounter. They can be observed as dynamic realities in nearly every soul whoaccepts God’s invitation and moves into a healthy, mature spirtituality.
We’ll unpack each of those shifts together in the following posts. Join me there if you want to Respond to God’s invitation to the Second Half of Your Spiritual Life.
See you there!
Next post
I offer 16 lessons on The Spiritual Journey to help you understand where you are… and move toward where God is calling you to be. We can set aside some time to chat together about your spiritual journey and see if these resources might be a good next step for you.
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