Episode 24 - Embarking on a Faith Journey: Key Insights for Transformation
The spiritual journey represents a profound exploration of one’s faith and personal growth, which we will delve into during this discourse. I shall draw upon the insights from Janet Hagberg and Robert Gulick's seminal work, "The Critical Stages in the Life of Faith," to elucidate the complexities and nuances associated with this transformative process. It is imperative to acknowledge that understanding our current position is essential to navigating the path ahead; without such awareness, we may find ourselves adrift in our spiritual quest. Furthermore, the significance of experiential knowledge cannot be overstated; one cannot effectively guide others toward destinations they have not personally traversed. Join me as we embark on this enlightening discussion, aiming to illuminate the intricate landscape of our spiritual journeys and the pivotal moments that shape our faith.
Takeaways:
- The spiritual journey requires an understanding of one's current position before embarking on future pathways.
- It is essential to have experienced guides when navigating the complexities of spiritual exploration.
- The process of repentance encompasses both a change of mind and a return to one's original path.
- Spiritual growth often involves cyclical patterns of progress and regression throughout one's life journey.
- Crises and challenges are inevitable in the spiritual journey, prompting necessary change and adaptation.
- Trust is a fundamental component of engaging in one's spiritual journey, requiring vulnerability and faith.
Links referenced in this episode:
Transcript
You're listening to the outpost podcast with Dr.
Speaker A:Ray Mitch.
Speaker A:Welcome everyone, to another edition of the outpost podcast.
Speaker A:I'm Dr.
Speaker A:Ray Mitch, your host.
Speaker A:So glad that you could take some time out of your busy schedule to listen in and hopefully get some, some information, some inspiration if I'm lucky.
Speaker A:And so I, I hope you've had a good weekend.
Speaker A:I'm sitting here on Sunday evening.
Speaker A:I don't know about anybody else.
Speaker A:And it has been the usual schizophrenic kind of weekend Colorado weather, where we have, you know, a tundra in the.
Speaker A:In Friday on Friday and Saturday.
Speaker A:And here we are at 50s today and looking into 60s in the week to come.
Speaker A:So that is very fitting for the state that I live in.
Speaker A:Not to mention the.
Speaker A:The mountains are getting slammed with a whole bunch of snow as well.
Speaker A:But since you did not listen, listen into the Outpost Podcast for a weather report.
Speaker A:Let me get onto it.
Speaker A:I am thankful that you have taken some time out of your schedule to listen in what you're listening to.
Speaker A:If you've never heard it before, you're wondering, why is he telling us about the weather?
Speaker A:We really don't care.
Speaker A:You're listening to the Outpost Podcast, and our attempt here is to explore the intersection of faith, psychology and spiritual formation.
Speaker A:This is, this is a grouping of elements of our lives that you don't usually hear a lot about.
Speaker A:And so I know that there is, there are a lot of podcasts out there for you to choose from.
Speaker A:And so I am honored and humbled that you would take some time to listen to this one.
Speaker A:So a couple different elements if you're new here.
Speaker A:The Outpost Podcast is related to a large organization called SGI Stained Glass International.
Speaker A:And so Stained Glass's ultimate mission is to encourage, empower, and equip the next generation of Christians and people just in general.
Speaker A:The love lies of authenticity with themselves, with each other, and maybe bump into the biblical Jesus in the midst of all that we're talking about here.
Speaker A:So that's why we're here.
Speaker A:That's what I'm trying to accomplish in doing a podcast like this is just to get a dialogue going, even though this is a monologue.
Speaker A:And ultimately our goal is to develop what I called outposts for the heart and communities for the soul.
Speaker A:And hopefully that will be achieved in time.
Speaker A:I don't know how that will be achieved.
Speaker A:It probably will start online with people sharing lives that way, and then we go to online live, and then we go to in person live.
Speaker A:That would be.
Speaker A:That would be my ultimate wisdom.
Speaker A:In accomplishing this, but I am not the one in charge of this process.
Speaker A:But Jesus is.
Speaker A:So we're waiting to see where he is leading and in that regard.
Speaker A:So in spite of all that, we really are here to create a space for the doubters and the bent and broken and the beat up and beat down and people that feel like their lives are a disappointment to God and to find some place that's safe enough for them to feel safe, to be known, to know others, to develop a sense of journey that they are on with other people, and to, like I said before, bump into the biblical Jesus, not the one that is stereotyped by a number of interactions with Christians.
Speaker A:That may not be all that Christ like and just the connection, the human connection that I think ultimately God does live in, because that's what he's designed us for.
Speaker A:So that's what we're about, that's what we're trying to accomplish with, with the Outpost podcast.
Speaker A:And I'm glad you're here.
Speaker A:Thanks so much for joining me.
Speaker A:I'm changing it up a little bit.
Speaker A:Instead of being stationed at my desk, I thought I'd.
Speaker A:I'd do a fireside chat of sorts.
Speaker A:Even though I have no fire behind me, I have the mountains behind me.
Speaker A:So pull up a chair, get comfortable, relax wherever you are, and hopefully we can talk about the issues that matter the most to you.
Speaker A:What I want to spend some time talking about is what is often referred to as a spiritual journey.
Speaker A:And what I'm going to share from is some material that has been put together in a book called the Critical Stages in the Life of Faith.
Speaker A:And it is a book that was written by a lady by the name of Janet Hagberg, and her co author is Robert Gulick.
Speaker A:And I'm borrowing from a lot of that to begin to lay some kind of understanding or topography of what our spiritual journey is like.
Speaker A:So this can be for people that are just finding out that maybe there's another way to live life, even in relationship to Jesus.
Speaker A:And once they start on that journey, what does it actually look like?
Speaker A:What am I getting myself into?
Speaker A:We can find hope and certainly salvation in our relationship with Christ, but then what?
Speaker A:How do we live life?
Speaker A:How do we do our relationships?
Speaker A:How do we manage our own emotions?
Speaker A:How do we deal with the baggage that we bring with us into this journey?
Speaker A:Because it will always come with us.
Speaker A:So in order to get out of the gates, what I'm going to do tonight is spend some time laying some foundations before we actually start on the journey itself, which we'll start into on next week.
Speaker A:And so what.
Speaker A:What I want to look at is some key principles.
Speaker A:The first two key principles I want to talk about is.
Speaker A:The first one is this is you can't go anywhere if you don't know where you currently are.
Speaker A:Now that makes intuitive sense.
Speaker A:And you might be sitting there going, well, well, that's a strong point to start on.
Speaker A:Captain Obvious, well done.
Speaker A:And I'll take whatever accolades I can in that regard.
Speaker A:But we can't get anywhere if you don't know where you are.
Speaker A:And that's true for the spiritual journey as well, is that if I don't have an understanding of where I am, that how do I figure out where I'm going?
Speaker A:And that's really what that key principle is all about.
Speaker A:There is something to be said for taking the time to survey the landscape and where we are before we launch into the journey ahead.
Speaker A:And whether that's using a map to do that, whether that's linking arms and being with other companions that have done a journey similar or on the journey themselves.
Speaker A:All of that is important, I think, to keep in mind when we're talking about this thing we call the spiritual journey.
Speaker A:So that's number one.
Speaker A:Second one is you can't lead someone to somewhere you've never been.
Speaker A:Now, again, that makes intuitive sense.
Speaker A:But there are so many times that I've caught myself and I've certainly seen other people pontificate and expound on all these things about areas or places or spiritual conditions or any number of things that they have never experienced themselves.
Speaker A:And if I'm going to walk a journey with somebody else, I don't know about you, but I would prefer to have somebody who has had a little experience doing the journey themselves.
Speaker A:Many years ago, I took my girls on a trail ride and we stayed overnight on the banks of the Blue river just outside of Aspen.
Speaker A:And then we went to a reputable, A reputable trail ride and we went to the barn.
Speaker A:And if I had walked in to the guide and said, hi, I'm here, we're checking in.
Speaker A:Oh, by the way, have you, have you ever done this ride before?
Speaker A:Have you ever been up to this place that you guys are selling such hot commodity to do such a thing?
Speaker A:And that guide said, not really, but I know all the maps I have.
Speaker A:I know how to ride a horse well.
Speaker A:I know how to handle trail ride issues that can come up, but I've never been up there.
Speaker A:But I know the map really, really well.
Speaker A:And in the next Breath.
Speaker A:I am saying thank you.
Speaker A:No thanks.
Speaker A:I'm going to go to hook up with somebody who has done this thing before and has been there before.
Speaker A:Because the thing to keep in mind is there is a difference between knowledge and experience.
Speaker A:And oftentimes we far outstrip our own knowledge because we don't have the experience.
Speaker A:And so if I have never walked the journey before, even though all of us are on a life journey, right?
Speaker A:But if I've never done this journey before, I should be fairly careful about the people that I choose to be on the journey with.
Speaker A:And that's really what a lot of this is about, is that if you have any hopes at some point in time to come back and help other people in the journey that you have experienced, then you have to walk the journey yourself and experience the things that come along with it.
Speaker A:So those are two key principles that I think are important to keep in mind even when we start talking, talking about this journey itself.
Speaker A:So a couple historical things just to keep in mind.
Speaker A:Initially, when Christianity was just beginning to grow, okay, Jesus has resurrected and he is ascended into heaven and not to be seen anymore.
Speaker A:And his followers are standing there looking at each other, going, okay, now what?
Speaker A:And they don't have a map, they don't have an owner's guide, they don't have a travel guide, they don't have anything to tell them how to go about doing this.
Speaker A:And so all they have to go on is ultimately what Jesus said during the time that he spent on earth with them.
Speaker A:Because he was on Earth from 30 years before he ever hooked up with this band of ragtag people he called Disciples.
Speaker A:But all they had was that three year period of time of hearing him preach and hearing him interact with people.
Speaker A:That's all they had really, to go on when we're looking at it.
Speaker A:So the reason I say all that is that they weren't known as Christians right out of the gate.
Speaker A:That title or that description wasn't given them until far later.
Speaker A:And it was out of a place in Turkey called Antioch.
Speaker A:I think that's Turkey.
Speaker A:I'm not sure.
Speaker A:I think that's true.
Speaker A:And so they didn't have that.
Speaker A:They weren't known as Christians.
Speaker A:And really the interesting thing about it is that they were actually referred to as the followers of the Way, which makes perfect sense, right?
Speaker A:I mean, they would talk about it that way because that's how Jesus talked about it.
Speaker A:He said, I am the way, the truth and the life.
Speaker A:And so they latched onto that and said, we are followers of the way.
Speaker A:And there is a way.
Speaker A:So ultimately, the roots of our faith is in journey, in being on this earthly journey until we finally arrive, if you will, at our ultimate, our eternal home.
Speaker A:So how does the process go?
Speaker A:The process starts with repentance.
Speaker A:And remember that repentance is not just, okay, I'm sorry, I did something wrong.
Speaker A:Repentance has two different elements to it, actually.
Speaker A:The first one we don't really think much about.
Speaker A:We know the second one, but we don't know the first one very much.
Speaker A:And repentance actually means not only a change of mind, which is usually what most people know about most people in the faith.
Speaker A:In Christianity, Christian faith, it's a Greek word called metanoia.
Speaker A:So it's a change to mind.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:The other word that is in the Hebrew, in the ancient language of the Hebrews, which is what Jesus was, he was a Jewish was a word called teshuvah, because they had no word for repent.
Speaker A:And so what teshuvah meant was to return.
Speaker A:And so when Jesus told the story of the prodigal son, he actually captured the two basic elements of repentance.
Speaker A:He changed his mind.
Speaker A:He was sitting there having lunch with the pigs, and it says he came to his senses.
Speaker A:In other words, changed his mind.
Speaker A:And then he headed for home.
Speaker A:He went home to his father.
Speaker A:So teshuvah was there returning, and then metanoia was there in changing our minds.
Speaker A:And our journey generally starts with repentance changing our mind and changing our direction.
Speaker A:And that is very much a part of it.
Speaker A:What is waiting for us when we actually make that move is forgiveness that is waiting for us of all that we've done, all that we've done to miss the mark, which is what the word, the religious word is a sin.
Speaker A:And so that's waiting for us.
Speaker A:But we unlock that with repentance and owning what's rightfully ours in terms of what we have done, how far we have run afield, and how far we have run away in the prodigal.
Speaker A:Jesus calls it a far country.
Speaker A:And the son comes home, returns teshuvah.
Speaker A:And so what happens after that, which we're not told in the story of the prodigal?
Speaker A:What happened after that?
Speaker A:I have my own hunches just for giggles here.
Speaker A:I mean, my own hunch is that actually the elder son became the.
Speaker A:The prodigal because he was so angry at his dad, allowing this miscreant to come back into the home again, kind of unscathed and no punishment and etc.
Speaker A:Because that's what he Ran by.
Speaker A:And so the thing that happens after that is growing with growing obedience in our relationship to.
Speaker A:To God.
Speaker A:Now, again, there are a number of terms in here that I have to be defined because we have them really badly, badly distorted.
Speaker A:Obedience is an interesting word because we have turned it into compliance.
Speaker A:In other words, acting on what we know to be true or what we know we need to do and doing it.
Speaker A:That's what obedience is.
Speaker A:The reality is, and I think I could support this even in Scripture, is that Jesus said, whoever hears my words, obedience and does them follows through with action, is my disciple.
Speaker A:See, obedience, the word obey comes from the Latin word obdare, which often is the root of where we get the word auditory.
Speaker A:And so obdare means to listen intently.
Speaker A:Obedience in that sense has nothing to do with action at all.
Speaker A:It has everything to do with listening intently.
Speaker A:And that's what obedience is.
Speaker A:So we grow in our ability to listen intently and then to put it into some measure of action in our lives as well.
Speaker A:And then sanctification and the ultimate kind of consummation in Jesus return.
Speaker A:The sanctification, again, is a religious word that conveys the process, conveys the journey we are on, the progressive changes over time that we are engaging in.
Speaker A:In this process.
Speaker A:Part of the bigger.
Speaker A:One of the bigger issues, which we'll talk about later, is there's no map.
Speaker A:All I know to do is to know what Jesus has showed me, just like the disciples did 2,000 years ago.
Speaker A:And that's really what we have in our own lives.
Speaker A:Because it's not a matter of there's a map for everybody's life and we just need to follow it and everything will be fine.
Speaker A:No, there's a map.
Speaker A:There is a journey for our lives.
Speaker A:No specific map, because if we had a map, we wouldn't need to trust.
Speaker A:And that's very much a part of this.
Speaker A:So this whole idea of journey and travel is both on a redemptive level.
Speaker A:In other words, we're changing as we go, but also on a missional level in the sense that whatever we experience along the way and whatever we have, we want to turn other people onto it.
Speaker A:We want to show people that this, this is a pretty good way to go and you should really consider it.
Speaker A:And that's.
Speaker A:That's in a lot of ways what evangelism ultimate ultimately is.
Speaker A:Okay, let me hang out.
Speaker A:Hang on a second here.
Speaker A:I've got to move myself a little bit in my chair.
Speaker A:Even in.
Speaker A:In the effort to be comfortable with this chair, I, I.
Speaker A:Some people don't know this, but I have a battery in my hip.
Speaker A:And so if I sit wrong, it starts getting uncomfortable.
Speaker A:And that's exactly what prompted that movement.
Speaker A:Anyway, that's all neither here nor there.
Speaker A:So the other thing to keep in mind in terms of the journey itself is it occurs in a cyclical nature.
Speaker A:It's not a linear thing.
Speaker A:Now one of the problems with this model, if you will, of life journey is that Hagberg and Gulig talk about in terms of stages.
Speaker A:And stages really do tempt us into a linear way of thinking.
Speaker A:And that's, that is very much a part of tempting us into thinking, if I do this, then I do this, then I do this, everything will be fine.
Speaker A:When in fact that's not a fair way to do it at all, really.
Speaker A:And so it happens in a cyclical manner where there are waypoints.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker A:Now you may or may not be familiar with that term.
Speaker A:Waypoints are used in flying an airplane because after all, when you're up in the air, there's no map out there.
Speaker A:There are coordinates, you know, longitudinal latitude, all of those kind of things.
Speaker A:And basically they, my understanding is a pilot to run on waypoints.
Speaker A:I get to a certain place after a certain amount of time at a certain longitude, latitude, coordinates, and then I change my course in order to get to where I'm going.
Speaker A:That's waypoints, all right.
Speaker A:That same thing is true of our journey is that there are waypoints along the way that we look for that we begin to understand that there's a place to change our journey or to look at various things.
Speaker A:And another example here in the mountains that we have is something called a cairn.
Speaker A:And a cairn in the Bible they talk about a monument, a stacking of stones up to mark some particular thing that is going on in the story itself.
Speaker A:And that's the idea of a cairn.
Speaker A:And a cairn marks where the trail is.
Speaker A:And so essentially when you walk the trail, you walk from one cairn to another and, and it marks a change in direction as well.
Speaker A:And the spiritual journey is a lot that same way.
Speaker A:We have to take that into account in very similar ways.
Speaker A:And each of those are characteristics of this thing we call the spiritual journey.
Speaker A:And the funny thing about it is I don't think we spend a lot of time talking about the journey itself.
Speaker A:We talk about our experiences on the journey, but we don't really talk about the kind of the meta view above the view, a 30,000 or 10,000 foot view of what this journey actually looks like and how we experience it and the nature of it.
Speaker A:Now, a couple other characteristics here, just to give you a sense of perspective on this journey we're going to be talking about, is that it is fluid.
Speaker A:It's not linear.
Speaker A:I've already mentioned that.
Speaker A:And it always involves starts and stops and transitions and falling back, digressions and progressions moving forward.
Speaker A:And that really is the nature of the journey.
Speaker A:The thing I would anchor it in is we experience that even as kids, as we're growing, that kids have regressive behavior.
Speaker A:All right, we have a kid that's five or six years old, and they act like a little baby, if you will.
Speaker A:Now, we don't ever.
Speaker A:That is never age defined by that, but they act a lot younger than their age would betray.
Speaker A:Now, some of the problem that I think we can get into is we think age dictates the nature of their experience at that time.
Speaker A:Now, it gives us a clue, but it doesn't dictate it because every kid is going to engage it in a different way.
Speaker A:And that's the nature of our own spiritual journey.
Speaker A:Why wouldn't it be?
Speaker A:It is calibrated against our own human development story.
Speaker A:So it's going to have some digressions and regressions, but then it's going to have progression.
Speaker A:So we advance and we move ahead and.
Speaker A:And we're thrilled with the movement we're making and the progress we're making.
Speaker A:So all of that is very much a part of what we're talking about here with the journey itself.
Speaker A:The other thing to keep in mind, which is unusual, I think, is that on any part of our journey, we can occupy more than one stage at the same time.
Speaker A:So I can be in what would be considered stage two and stage one at the same time.
Speaker A:They kind of collapse down on each other.
Speaker A:And the way to think about this is kind of like a spiral.
Speaker A:And so if I were able to, which I don't think you can, I'm sure there are probably some ways to do this from a.
Speaker A:From a topography point of view.
Speaker A:But here in Colorado, right out my.
Speaker A:My window or my car window windshield, as I'm driving to work, I see a.
Speaker A:A huge mountain that is off in the distance to the north.
Speaker A:And it's called Long's peak.
Speaker A:It's a 14 or it's above 14,000ft.
Speaker A:And it is a remarkable feature.
Speaker A:I am so blessed with being able to look at mountains when I go into work every morning.
Speaker A:But if I were able to mark where that mountain actually started and could do that all the way around it, all the way around it.
Speaker A:And then I have a starting point, and then I circumnavigate that mountain in a spiral until I come back to the point where I started, except that I'm higher up the mountain.
Speaker A:Instead of climbing the mountain in a straight line, which is far more efficient, I would be circumnavigating it.
Speaker A:I'd be going all the way around it, getting back to this point, hopefully a little higher, and then I do that again.
Speaker A:That's what this spiritual journey is like.
Speaker A:If, for example, on that trip there was a ravine that ran all the way up the spine of the mountain, then guess what?
Speaker A:With my journey, I would always come around and hit that ravine again, time and time again.
Speaker A:Now, imagine our lives being just like that.
Speaker A:Circumnavigation of a spiral around a mountain, and I hit the ravine.
Speaker A:And the ravine stands for a besetting sin, a thing that we struggle with consistently day in and day out.
Speaker A:And we get frustrated with and we get condemning of ourselves over and all the other things that come along with it in the vain hope that that would change it.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:And the problem is that as we're heading up that mountain in this circular fashion, a spiral fashion, I hit the same ravine, but ultimately I'm higher.
Speaker A:Same ravine, but I'm higher on the mountain.
Speaker A:And the problem is that when I hit the ravine, I make the mistake of saying, oh, gosh, here I am again.
Speaker A:Here's this ravine.
Speaker A:I am back to square one.
Speaker A:And we never take the time often to look back, to see that we're actually higher on the mountain than we were before.
Speaker A:And then we get this sense of discouragement going, and we feel like we're not getting anywhere, when in fact, we have actually come a long way.
Speaker A:It's just the same ravine.
Speaker A:And that's what the spiritual journey often is like.
Speaker A:As we keep stubbing our toe over a variety of things, it seems like the same thing over and over and over again.
Speaker A:And yet we are still making progress in this journey.
Speaker A:And that's equally as important, I think, to keep in mind when we're talking about the journey.
Speaker A:Now, a couple different issues I want to highlight for you.
Speaker A:And again, these are all.
Speaker A:This is all your.
Speaker A:Not a trail map, but this is all your warnings, if you will, going into this journey or while you're on it, you may find some piece of information that you've never had before.
Speaker A:Maybe that's what this is, is to put some things in perspective as you're on the journey, you've been on it for a while, but you haven't considered this.
Speaker A:The first one is in our struggle to try to find fulfillment in how we do it.
Speaker A:Our temptation is to compare ourselves to other people that we know that are on this journey as well.
Speaker A:And the false assumption we make is that their journey is my journey and my journey is their journey.
Speaker A:Now my journey being their journey is irrelevant.
Speaker A:Their journey is mine.
Speaker A:And I make the comparison and I end up using expectations of perfection, which is usually non defined as far as what that expectation is.
Speaker A:But we apply that here.
Speaker A:And while we all would be the first to admit I can't attain perfection, that doesn't stop us from striving to attain it, which doesn't make any sense at all.
Speaker A:But there's a lot about our lives and how we lead them that doesn't make much sense.
Speaker A:So we can get stuck spiritually as a result of our expectations, not as a result of the journey itself.
Speaker A:And more often than not, the culprit of getting stuck the way we do is the expectations we have, the frustration that builds up that this should be a lot easier than it is, or I should be a lot farther than I am, or any number of things that come up that say wherever I'm at is not good enough.
Speaker A:Now I think I would be safe in saying that good enough is not in God's vocabulary.
Speaker A:It's in our vocabulary because good enough requires a comparison.
Speaker A:The reality is God accepts you as you are, not as you should be, because you're never going to be what you should be.
Speaker A:And that is the clarion call of doing this journey is accepting the journey that I am on as me, myself, and all the things that I bring with me on this journey and walking it as faithfully and with as much integrity as I know how, and allowing myself to have safe, important key traveling companions who are walking this journey with me and helping me to maintain some measure of perspective.
Speaker A:The second thing that inevitably comes up in all these journeys are crises, big and small.
Speaker A:There's no comparison on this point really, whether they're big or they're small.
Speaker A:There's still challenges, no matter which way you cut it.
Speaker A:Some people would suggest that a crisis is the combination of danger and opportunity and.
Speaker A:Sounds nice, preaches well, but yeah, I don't know that I buy it entirely.
Speaker A:Crisis challenges us to change our ways absolutely without a shadow of a doubt.
Speaker A:It can result in some pretty nasty things and sometimes it can result in, in some significant changes.
Speaker A:And so crises come up during this journey, and we get stuck and we have to deal with the circumstances that are assaulting us at that point in time in the journey, which means we don't make a lot of progress.
Speaker A:And somewhere we've gotten this notion that my journey should be this kind of steady progress into deepening relationship with Jesus and intimacy and all that.
Speaker A:And that doesn't take much of our humanity into account, really, because of how inconsistent and how knocked off track we can become because of these crises that we face as being human, living in a broken world, and being broken people.
Speaker A:So our transformation, in a lot of ways, really does give us challenges, our expectations.
Speaker A:Because transformation, if we are going to engage in transformation, it requires two things.
Speaker A:One is being on a journey, which we've been talking about, and two, it requires trust.
Speaker A:We're not a real fan of trust.
Speaker A:We would choose certainty and safety over trust in a lot of cases.
Speaker A:And so the problem with trust is that it involves risk.
Speaker A:And we're not a real fan.
Speaker A:I'm not either, for that matter.
Speaker A:But more often than not, when we're doing this journey, we try to look at how can I do this under my own power, under my own abilities, even though I haven't develop those abilities, having the knowledge I have, as if that's enough for the journey that's ahead.
Speaker A:And all of that goes into doing this journey and understanding how to engage it well, not do it well, but engage it well.
Speaker A:And I think there's a difference between those two things, because doing it well has a performance component to it that then prompts us into a perfection, perfectionistic way of thinking versus engaging it well is maybe today's day of journey hasn't been that good, hasn't been going very well, and it may not, but there's another day ahead.
Speaker A:We're not guaranteed it, obviously, but when I have it and the gift that it is, what am I going to do with it and how am I going to engage it?
Speaker A:So the other thing to keep in mind, and I think this is really my last point in terms of getting everything kind of set up, is that the whole thing of this journey is the synergy.
Speaker A:If you're not familiar with that, I'll define it in a minute here.
Speaker A:The synergy between God's grace and my engagement.
Speaker A:Now, I just finished talking about engagement, but my engagement or the effort I put into it to participate actively in it.
Speaker A:And quite honestly, we don't understand grace very much.
Speaker A:As a matter of fact, I think we're pretty uncomfortable with grace because we don't like being given things that we can't reciprocate on.
Speaker A:And grace is one of those things.
Speaker A:And so instead of humbling us, it prompts us to redouble our efforts to try to return the favor or to be worthy of it or whatever the wording is that we come up with.
Speaker A:So that synergy is how they work together.
Speaker A:There's an interaction between those two.
Speaker A:And the interaction always involves something that comes out of that way, bigger than just the two components combined.
Speaker A:And so we have to have realistic expectations.
Speaker A:We don't have the kind of experience for the journey ahead.
Speaker A:Our journey, not someone else's.
Speaker A:Again, our journey.
Speaker A:And just remember that transformation always requires trust.
Speaker A:And we have to grow in that area.
Speaker A:I think there are certain relationships we can say that we trust God, but more often than not, that is a knowledge point, not an experience point.
Speaker A:And I might put it in another sense, it's a head point, but it's not a heart point.
Speaker A:It's not something we embrace at that level.
Speaker A:So let me.
Speaker A:Let me end with a couple comment or a couple quotes I think are pretty telling.
Speaker A:First one comes from Augustine.
Speaker A:He said, without God we cannot, but without us, God will not.
Speaker A:And that's that interaction effect, that synergy between God's grace and our willingness to participate wholeheartedly in it.
Speaker A:And so we have to understand the seasons, we have to understand the stages of our journey in order to not get down on ourselves, not get discouraged.
Speaker A:We will get discouraged.
Speaker A:Okay, let's just be clear.
Speaker A:It's not a matter that we won't get discouraged.
Speaker A:We will.
Speaker A:The issue is what am I going to do with myself when I do?
Speaker A:Am I going to shame myself for getting discouraged?
Speaker A:Or am I going to lean even more into trusting God's heart for me, even when I'm discouraged.
Speaker A:And ultimately the biggest or the most profound picture of that is Job.
Speaker A:Job is a picture of someone who is profoundly discouraged and in the depths of grief and despair.
Speaker A:And even then he was clinging to God and he calls him.
Speaker A:I know that my redeemer liveth because one day I will see him face to face.
Speaker A:That is the answer to his discouragement.
Speaker A:Did it make his discouragement go away?
Speaker A:No, it did not.
Speaker A:It did not.
Speaker A:But it was an anchor.
Speaker A:It was a big T truth that really helped him to kind of continue.
Speaker A:And then the last one is from Cassian, who said, there is no arrival unless there is a plan to grow.
Speaker A:As kids, we don't plan to grow, we just grow.
Speaker A:But I think we get to a point in Late adolescence, early adulthood.
Speaker A:That we have some choices to make about how we're going to engage this process and that is particularly true when we're talking about the spiritual journey as well, is how am I going to engage this process and understand it in light of some of the things that hopefully I'm talking about here.
Speaker A:So let me wrap it up.
Speaker A:That's it for tonight.
Speaker A:My usual end of program reminders.
Speaker A:If you have questions or anything, feel free to DM me on Instagram @sgiinternational.
Speaker A:You can, you can leave a comment or yeah, comment on sgi-net.org or Home and I will get that comment as well.
Speaker A:So if you have questions, you have a reaction, please put it there.
Speaker A:It's a great way to do that.
Speaker A:The one thing I want to mention to you about the website is that when you hit the website you will get hit with a pop up.
Speaker A:I will warn you ahead of time, it's an annoyance to all of us.
Speaker A:I understand that, but I would encourage you to sign up.
Speaker A:We are not going to send you spam, we are not going to send you unsolicited email, but we will send you periodically a newsletter of updates of things that are happening in the SGI community.
Speaker A:And that's where you're going to hear it.
Speaker A:You know, podcast schedules and guests that I may be interviewing or inspirational readings from a variety of people, whether it's from me or others.
Speaker A:As well, you will hear updates on the retreats that are coming up, ones that you might be interested in getting involved in in some way that's the same way that's how you find that out is through some of the, the email that we'll be sending out, email newsletter of sorts.
Speaker A:The other thing is to avail yourself of, if you're interested is a once a week email that you can get about healthy relationships.
Speaker A:And it's called Setting New Boundaries.
Speaker A:It's a digital devotional.
Speaker A:You sign up for five bucks a month or, or semi annually for I believe it's 50 bucks for six months and then or 100 bucks for a whole year and you'll get one every week.
Speaker A:And it will talk about relationships and boundaries and the important things that are, that are things to engage in to, to have a healthy relationship.
Speaker A:So sign up for that.
Speaker A:All of your donations, everything are tax deductible.
Speaker A:And so you will get a receipt for that that you can use on your taxes next year.
Speaker A:And that's true for all donations.
Speaker A:If you want to partner with us in any way, shape or form we would be ever so grateful.
Speaker A:It not only helps us to support our silent retreats for young people, which we have three coming up, but it also supports all the other activities that we're doing through sgi, including hopefully at some point group leader training and launching some in person groups as we're able to accomplish that.
Speaker A:And we want our leaders to be well trained to support and encourage and continue to build the, the community, the outpost community throughout.
Speaker A:I don't know, maybe our country, who knows, maybe the state, whatever that might be.
Speaker A:You can, you can follow us on three different social media platforms on Instagram, which I already mentioned, at SGI International and then on Facebook at Ray Mitch Mitsch and LinkedIn @Dr.
Speaker A:Mitch.
Speaker A:You'll see us there as well.
Speaker A:If you're just interested in the podcast, you can subscribe on any of the platforms you listen to podcasts from, which includes Spotify and itunes and Google Play and any of the other platforms that you use to listen to podcasts.
Speaker A:So please do that as well.
Speaker A:And if you would rather send a physical check to support us, you can do that.
Speaker A:Or if you have other information and things to send to us, you feel free to do that as well.
Speaker A:Our address is SGI, P.O.
Speaker A: , Eastlake, CO: Speaker A:So P.O.
Speaker A: , eastlake, CO: Speaker A:The last thing I'll mention to you is relatively new, my new book just released in early January, mid January, called Seasons of Our Grief.
Speaker A:And we have a website called seasonsofourgrief.com all lowercase and you can see the book, you can purchase the book there for a discount compared to Amazon and you can see the backstory and we've got a video up of the book signing event we had a couple of weeks ago, which was a good time that we that I had to meet people that are buying the book and hug a few necks and hang out and trade stories about life and all the things that are part of even grieving.
Speaker A:So it was a great time and hopefully we can have some other times.
Speaker A:If you live somewhere where there's a bookstore that might be willing to sponsor a book signing, hit me up on any of the social media I'd be interested in engaging or doing something like that if there's an opportunity for it.
Speaker A:So I think that's it.
Speaker A:There's some merchandise.
Speaker A:One other thing I'll mention, there's some merchandise on the website as well at the SGI store.
Speaker A:Again, the website is sgi-net.org In SGI store we have a couple pieces of merchandise just to support and encourage and speak to or rep the SGI or the Outpost podcast.
Speaker A:We have a beautiful window sticker that you can put up and or put it on your water bottle, whichever you prefer.
Speaker A:It is got the the motto at the top called Sa quam videri which which is a Latin phrase meaning to be rather than seem and you can certainly buy one of those for a few bucks and you'll get it in the mail and you can proudly wear it to support and and let people know about what we're doing on the podcast and also on the website as well.
Speaker A:Let's see.
Speaker A:I think that's everything.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:That's enough.
Speaker A:Thanks so much for joining me tonight.
Speaker A:I appreciate your time and willingness to to consider some of these topics.
Speaker A:We'll continue our series in on the spiritual journey next week and I'll be here for for that I invite you to come back and join me and until then, love you.
Speaker A:Later.
Speaker A:Bye.
