Journey Through The Wall
Before I get to the real "meat" of this post I want to let everyone know that I am thoroughly enjoying Omaha, Nebraska. The weather here has been amazing and pretty cool, the low last night was 48 degrees. I do miss family and friends but the adjusting process is going great. I am making new friendships with some of the girls that are in class with me and with ones that live here on campus that are also graduate students.
One of the most amazing things thus far is how God works in "mysterious ways". God has reconnected me with a friend that I met over 4 years ago. In January 2005, I went to DC to represent Arkansas at a Presidential leadership conference. Upon arriving to DC we were quickly split into groups, these would be the people we would spend the remainder of the week with we'd go sightseeing with these people as well as work together in a group to try and be "elected" for president (our group did win and for a week we were the "white house" group). There have been a few people who I've remained in contact over the years. One of those people is my friend Molly who represented Iowa. We emailed and texted and talked on the phone often during the first year after returning home. We've faced many of the same struggles and hardships in life and through those we were able to share with each other words of encouragement, scriptures, and just friendship. We emailed off and on up until Dec. 2008, Molly got a new job and well I didn't have her new email address. After arriving here in Omaha and driving through Iowa, I became curious as to how close Molly lived, I began reading through older emails and realized that her husbands farm was not far from here, so I tried emailing the 2 email addresses I had for her with no luck. I tried texting her and found out I did not have the correct phone number either. But because I had lots of down time when I first moved here I started searching facebook and after 2 hours of trying this name and that I finally found her and as you can imagine she was just as excited as I was to be able to meet up and hang out again. I am so thankful for the way God works and how He places people in your life for a reason and even though I never thought our paths would cross again they have and I believe God has awesome things in store for our friendship. And for me being new to the area it was a blessing to really know someone that lives close by.
That was just to update everyone on how I was doing and how awesome God is, however it's not what's be weighing on my heart. Over the last few day's I have been trying to process this information in hopes to write a blog that makes sense. The wisdom that is found in the pages of Emotionally Healthy Spirituality is amazing, but it is also a lot to chew on. As I have been reading it I truly can sense Scazzero's emotions, and have thought to myself I've been there or WOW I so get that! So bare with me as I attempt to make sense of the Wall and the journey through it.
Scazzero uses Janet Haberg and Robert Guelich model of the stages of faith. Each stage builds upon the previous stage.
Here are the six stages,
1)Life-Changing Awareness of God,
2)Discipleship (learning about God and what it means to follow Christ)
3) The Active Life (the serving stage, doing and getting involved, actively working for God)
"The Wall"
4)Journey Inward
5)Journey Outward
6)Transformed into Love
The wall is closely related to the Inward Journey, "the wall" compels us into the journey and sometimes the journey eventually leads us to the wall. But the important thing to remember is that God is the one who brings us to the wall. Once we come through the wall we begin to move outward again often doing some of the same active things before only now we give out of a new, grounded center of ourselves in God. It is the outward journey that we rediscover Gods profound, deep, accepting love for us. It is also where a deep, inner stillness begins to characterize our work for God. In stage 6 God will continually send events, circumstances, people etc to keep us moving forward in the journey.
Scazzero looks at the stages as seasons, just as we can't control the seasons neither can we control the walls. Walls often appear through crisis that flip our worlds upside down. They can come through "divorce, a job loss, the death of a close friend or family member, a cancer diagnosis, a disillusioning church experience, a betrayal, a shattered dream, a wayward child, a car accident, an inability to get pregnant, a deep desire to marry that remains unfilled, a dryness or loss of joy in our relationship with God." After the wall appears we find ourselves questioning God, ourselves, even the church. "We have more questions than answers as the very foundation of our faith feels like it is on the line."
Walls come to us in various ways through out our lifetime and it is simply not a one-time event that we pass through and get beyond. It appears to be something we return to as part of our ongoing relationship with God. There are examples of this in the Bible - Abraham waiting at the wall for twenty-five years for the birth of his child, then several years later he comes to yet another wall the sacrificing of his son the one he waited on at the last wall for. There are several others in the Bible, Moses, Elijah, Nehemiah, Paul and the list goes on of people who have gone through the wall numerous times in their journey with God. Once we make it through the wall, we no longer have that need to be well known or successful but to just do Gods will.
God wants to communicate to us His love, He longs that we will know his true peace and rest. God uses these walls as a time to carve on our character, to free us from unhealthy attachments. God truly longs for a intimate, passionate love relationship with us. Many of us fail to go through the wall because of trials, setbacks, and fear. Going through the wall may take weeks, months or even years once again look at Abraham. God has a unique purpose for each of, knowing how much there is to cleanse out of our inner being, and how much He wants to infuse of Himself into us for His greater, long-term purpose. Some people will go through great sufferings and hit the wall, yet the wall didn't change them they bounce off it, then to return to a similar but different wall to just bounce off of it again. They often become bitter and even more angry then before.
Ultimately it is God who moves us through the Wall. How and when God takes us through is all up to Him, we just have to make the choice to trust Him, to wait on Him, to obey Him and to remain faithful even when everything else within us is telling us to just throw in the towel and run. It is Gods slow, deep work of transformation in us. So how do you know you've made it through the wall here are 4 dynamics Scazzero gives us to consider.
1)A greater level of brokenness
2)A greater appreciation for Holy Unknowing (Mystery)
3)A deeper ability to wait for God
4)A greater detachment (are you free?)
I hope that this makes sense and I hope it encourages you as it did me. It gave me new perspective of the "walls" in life and to think of the 4 dynamics that show that we've made it through the wall I believe the wall is worth going through to become even more broken before God!
"Remember, Gods purpose for us is to have a loving union with him at the end of the journey. The journey with Jesus calls us to a life of undivided devotion to Him. This requires that we simplify our lives, removing distractions."
One of the most amazing things thus far is how God works in "mysterious ways". God has reconnected me with a friend that I met over 4 years ago. In January 2005, I went to DC to represent Arkansas at a Presidential leadership conference. Upon arriving to DC we were quickly split into groups, these would be the people we would spend the remainder of the week with we'd go sightseeing with these people as well as work together in a group to try and be "elected" for president (our group did win and for a week we were the "white house" group). There have been a few people who I've remained in contact over the years. One of those people is my friend Molly who represented Iowa. We emailed and texted and talked on the phone often during the first year after returning home. We've faced many of the same struggles and hardships in life and through those we were able to share with each other words of encouragement, scriptures, and just friendship. We emailed off and on up until Dec. 2008, Molly got a new job and well I didn't have her new email address. After arriving here in Omaha and driving through Iowa, I became curious as to how close Molly lived, I began reading through older emails and realized that her husbands farm was not far from here, so I tried emailing the 2 email addresses I had for her with no luck. I tried texting her and found out I did not have the correct phone number either. But because I had lots of down time when I first moved here I started searching facebook and after 2 hours of trying this name and that I finally found her and as you can imagine she was just as excited as I was to be able to meet up and hang out again. I am so thankful for the way God works and how He places people in your life for a reason and even though I never thought our paths would cross again they have and I believe God has awesome things in store for our friendship. And for me being new to the area it was a blessing to really know someone that lives close by.
That was just to update everyone on how I was doing and how awesome God is, however it's not what's be weighing on my heart. Over the last few day's I have been trying to process this information in hopes to write a blog that makes sense. The wisdom that is found in the pages of Emotionally Healthy Spirituality is amazing, but it is also a lot to chew on. As I have been reading it I truly can sense Scazzero's emotions, and have thought to myself I've been there or WOW I so get that! So bare with me as I attempt to make sense of the Wall and the journey through it.
Scazzero uses Janet Haberg and Robert Guelich model of the stages of faith. Each stage builds upon the previous stage.
Here are the six stages,
1)Life-Changing Awareness of God,
2)Discipleship (learning about God and what it means to follow Christ)
3) The Active Life (the serving stage, doing and getting involved, actively working for God)
"The Wall"
4)Journey Inward
5)Journey Outward
6)Transformed into Love
The wall is closely related to the Inward Journey, "the wall" compels us into the journey and sometimes the journey eventually leads us to the wall. But the important thing to remember is that God is the one who brings us to the wall. Once we come through the wall we begin to move outward again often doing some of the same active things before only now we give out of a new, grounded center of ourselves in God. It is the outward journey that we rediscover Gods profound, deep, accepting love for us. It is also where a deep, inner stillness begins to characterize our work for God. In stage 6 God will continually send events, circumstances, people etc to keep us moving forward in the journey.
Scazzero looks at the stages as seasons, just as we can't control the seasons neither can we control the walls. Walls often appear through crisis that flip our worlds upside down. They can come through "divorce, a job loss, the death of a close friend or family member, a cancer diagnosis, a disillusioning church experience, a betrayal, a shattered dream, a wayward child, a car accident, an inability to get pregnant, a deep desire to marry that remains unfilled, a dryness or loss of joy in our relationship with God." After the wall appears we find ourselves questioning God, ourselves, even the church. "We have more questions than answers as the very foundation of our faith feels like it is on the line."
Walls come to us in various ways through out our lifetime and it is simply not a one-time event that we pass through and get beyond. It appears to be something we return to as part of our ongoing relationship with God. There are examples of this in the Bible - Abraham waiting at the wall for twenty-five years for the birth of his child, then several years later he comes to yet another wall the sacrificing of his son the one he waited on at the last wall for. There are several others in the Bible, Moses, Elijah, Nehemiah, Paul and the list goes on of people who have gone through the wall numerous times in their journey with God. Once we make it through the wall, we no longer have that need to be well known or successful but to just do Gods will.
God wants to communicate to us His love, He longs that we will know his true peace and rest. God uses these walls as a time to carve on our character, to free us from unhealthy attachments. God truly longs for a intimate, passionate love relationship with us. Many of us fail to go through the wall because of trials, setbacks, and fear. Going through the wall may take weeks, months or even years once again look at Abraham. God has a unique purpose for each of, knowing how much there is to cleanse out of our inner being, and how much He wants to infuse of Himself into us for His greater, long-term purpose. Some people will go through great sufferings and hit the wall, yet the wall didn't change them they bounce off it, then to return to a similar but different wall to just bounce off of it again. They often become bitter and even more angry then before.
Ultimately it is God who moves us through the Wall. How and when God takes us through is all up to Him, we just have to make the choice to trust Him, to wait on Him, to obey Him and to remain faithful even when everything else within us is telling us to just throw in the towel and run. It is Gods slow, deep work of transformation in us. So how do you know you've made it through the wall here are 4 dynamics Scazzero gives us to consider.
1)A greater level of brokenness
2)A greater appreciation for Holy Unknowing (Mystery)
3)A deeper ability to wait for God
4)A greater detachment (are you free?)
I hope that this makes sense and I hope it encourages you as it did me. It gave me new perspective of the "walls" in life and to think of the 4 dynamics that show that we've made it through the wall I believe the wall is worth going through to become even more broken before God!
"Remember, Gods purpose for us is to have a loving union with him at the end of the journey. The journey with Jesus calls us to a life of undivided devotion to Him. This requires that we simplify our lives, removing distractions."
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