Still more on stage four: it may seem like you’re losing faith
12.08.2011 | All Blog Posts, Books and Resources, Spirituality and leadership, Stages of Spiritual Growth
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 . . .
12.17.2011
This is wonderful guidance. I think it would help tremendously if individuals on the spiritual path were made aware that at each stage of the journey into deep and deep connections with spirit that there are periods of resistance. There are periods of doubt. It is a form of dying into rebirth. It would help if people could be assured that this not knowing is often a birthing into a new was of being faithful to the way Love expresses through you.
12.20.2011
Tony, thanks for your insightful comment. Folks, you ought to check out his website. Good stuff. Just click on his name in the comment section above.