Tag Archives: lifetime
My Own Journey
Growing in Christ: Week 2 My Own Journey Monday, March 25, 2019 One always learns one’s mystery at the price of one’s innocence. —Robertson Davies [1] We all came into this world gifted with innocence, but gradually, as we became more intelligent, we lost our innocence. We were born with silence, and as we grew… Continue Reading My Own Journey
From Naïveté to Wisdom
Growing in Christ: Week 2 From Naïveté to Wisdom Sunday, March 24, 2019 To grow toward love, union, salvation, or enlightenment (I use the words almost interchangeably), we must be moved from Order to Disorder and finally to Reorder. ORDER: At this stage—our “first naïveté,” if we are granted it (and not all are)—we feel… Continue Reading From Naïveté to Wisdom
Growing in Christ: Week 1 Summary
Growing in Christ: Week 1 Summary: Sunday, March 17—Friday, March 22, 2019 Religion and various models of human development seem to suggest there are two major tasks for each human life. The first task is to build a strong “container” or identity; the second is to find the contents that the container was meant to… Continue Reading Growing in Christ: Week 1 Summary
The Performance Principle
Growing in Christ: Week 1 The Performance Principle Friday, March 22, 2019 Religion in the second half of life is finally not a moral matter; it’s a mystical matter. While most of us begin focused on moral proficiency and perfection, we can’t spend our whole lives this way. Paul calls the first-half-of-life approach “the Law”;… Continue Reading The Performance Principle
Relinquishing Ego
Growing in Christ: Week 1 Relinquishing Ego Thursday, March 21, 2019 God’s seed is in us. If it were tended by a good, wise and industrious laborer, it would then flourish all the better, and would grow up to God, whose seed it is, and its fruits would be like God’s own nature. The seed… Continue Reading Relinquishing Ego
Individuation
Growing in Christ: Week 1 Individuation Wednesday, March 20, 2019 I first learned about the two halves of life from Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung (1875–1961). Today we’ll hear from a Jungian analyst, James Hollis, who is saying the same thing I am trying to say, but better. Hollis writes: The second half of life presents… Continue Reading Individuation
In Need of Guidance
Growing in Christ: Week 1 In Need of Guidance Tuesday, March 19, 2019 There’s a somewhat overlooked passage in the middle of Romans where Paul says, “The only thing that counts is not what human beings want or try to do [that’s the first half of life], but the mercy of God [that’s the second… Continue Reading In Need of Guidance
The Container and the Contents
Growing in Christ: Week 1 The Container and the Contents Monday, March 18, 2019 Theologically and objectively speaking, we are created in union with God from the beginning (e.g., Ephesians 1:3-9). But it is hard for us to believe or experience this without a healthy ego and boundaries. Thus, the first part of the spiritual… Continue Reading The Container and the Contents
The Task within the Task
Growing in Christ: Week 1 The Task within the Task Sunday, March 17, 2019 Religion and various models of human development seem to suggest there are two major tasks for each human life. The first task is to build a strong “container” or identity; the second is to find the contents that the container was… Continue Reading The Task within the Task
Entering the Dark Wood
Hope in the Darkness Entering the Dark Wood Monday, September 4, 2017 The mystics of all the great religions, along with classic literature like Homer’s Odyssey, intuited that life was a journey involving completion of a first half and transition to a second half, sometimes called “a further journey.” Yet most of us were given the… Continue Reading Entering the Dark Wood