A Practical Guide for Transformative Growth Part 2નમૂનો

Introduction

Spiritual growth is both a journey and a process. The maturation process takes place in a context, and that context is the unique events and circumstances of your life’s journey. Spiritual growth is not something that happens apart from life. Life is the classroom that God uses to bring us to maturity. He uses everything; your parents, your children, the job you hate, the boss you can’t get along with, marriage, divorce, health, illness, church people, your dog…everything. If we pay attention to the lessons, then this journey of life can also be a journey of maturity. If we don’t, we just get older without becoming wise. We can choose to attend to our lessons at any time or become a school dropout at any time. It’s completely up to us. It is a sad thing, however, to see someone who refuses to grow past a certain point. Even more tragic to see is an old man (or woman) who is still a child.

The path our lives will take is unique to our story but, at the same time, we all share a common experience of making our way from birth to eternity through this world. Similarly, our journey from immaturity to maturity is both common and unique. In situations such as these, a useful tool is a map. A map says this is the terrain, this is where you are, and this is where you want to get to. How you get there is up to you. Everyone’s path will be different but at least you understand your position relative to the destination and you also know what sort of terrain to expect.

To guide our spiritual journey, I have developed a Journey Guide (shown below):

The Journey Guide is adapted from Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, a classical storytelling template. Imagine with me an epic tale of adventure. It is the story of a hero who starts off as a naive and immature young person who sets sail from their homeland in search of adventure. After many twists and turns, battles and conquests, victories and defeats, they eventually return home as a wise sage. This hero is you and the adventure is your life.

The guide is not saying that you have to go through all of the stages shown or in the order shown. It’s just a map of the terrain. If you can locate yourself on the map, then you know what lies between you and your destination (maturity).

In the days that follow, we will unpack what each of these stages mean. Are you ready for an adventure?!