Growing Up: The Second Half

Description

Our spiritual journey unfolds in two great movements as love matures. I invite you to reflect on the shift from the first half of life into the second, where faith deepens even as it softens. Nothing has gone wrong along the way because God holds the journey. At first we crawl, then walk, then run. In earlier years we hunger for certainty, independence, and being right. Over time, however, something changes. We begin to value interdependence, and gradually we find ourselves saying, “Life is enough.” Instead of needing to win, we start treasuring relationship. Along the way there emerges what Richard Rohr calls a “bright sadness,” a joy that has tasted beauty and still aches for a world not yet healed. As this awareness grows, we realize that we “understand so little, but God holds so much.” According to Swedenborg, regeneration always unfolds in stages, and the Lord patiently leads us from external truths into a living, heartfelt faith, quietly bending even our struggles toward good (Divine Providence 67, 296; True Christianity 571). Consequently, the loyal soldier within us, so efficient and certain, slowly yields to a wiser heart. We see more nuance. We extend more grace. Eventually certainty itself changes form and becomes trust, a deep, abiding confidence that God truly has it all. In the end, this is the art of homecoming, the steady journey from head to heart.