At Friends Church we are striving towards a spiritual ideal, we call it Stage 4 Spirituality. And in Stage 4 Spirituality, our ways of living in this complicated world can look a little different:
• we let go of certainty and explore the mystery
• we let go of black or white thinking and wrestle with nuance
• we let go of one-sized-fits-all answers and take responsibility for what our unique spiritual journey is going to look like.
In a word, we Live in Tension in a world that can pull us in all kinds of directions. Sometimes the forces seem like they are pulling us apart. We can feel the pull of the people around us and what they need (we call this the "They") and that is in tension with taking care of ourselves (we call this the "I"). It’s not an easy balance to hold! But it’s the reality many of us live in.
Our spiritual ancestors captured this Tension in stories. Stories seem to be able to hold onto truths without resorting to absolutism or over-simplifications. Stories can hold multiple forces in tension in a way that feels like our lives and often show us ways to move through. Stories can be cautionary tales of a life lived in ignorance and sometimes the stories tell of a person just like us, moving through a world that has a lot of similarities to the worlds we inhabit. Learning as they go. Teaching us through their lives.
That is Stage 4 Spirituality. In this series we are going to explore the stories of our spiritual ancestors that help us see and navigate Living in Tension -- so that we can be the spiritual people we truly can be in this complicated world of ours.
We invite you to join us at the Spiritual Gym starting February 12 -- put it in your calendar!
Series ran Feb. - Mar. 2023
