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“Weighing Truth and Life”
Sarah Bessey writes about what she calls the four stages of faith formation. Simplicity is dualistic and committed to constructing. It tends to frame everything into obedience vs disobedience, good vs evil, right vs wrong. Complexity becomes more pragmatic. This stage looks at what works. It values freedom, independence, deconstruction, activism, readiness to change. Perplexity develops critical understanding and awareness of our biases and mistakes. It challenges the status quo towards making sense sic [on the downside it can become judgmental suspicious and frustrated]. It can be summed up by saying “But what about?” Harmony embraces a holistic inclusive posture. It values connection compassion and embodied goodness. Faith becomes a humble reverent openness to “mystery that expresses itself in non-discriminatory love.”
She writes, “I’ve known people who’ve stayed in the first stage of Simplicity for their entire lives, even as their theology of beliefs changes. I’ve known people who landed in Complexity by the time they’re 13 years old and never really budge. There are people in their 20s who’ve taught me more about an embodied life of Harmony than anyone else. The point isn’t to arrive, but to keep going. When it’s messy, slow, mapless, in fits and starts, starless, and lonely, we keep moving. Most people find themselves in several stages at once. It’s rarely a neat and tidy experience. We can be grappling with doubt, even as we’re trying to offer answers. We can question what belonging means even while we’ve found community in a local church. We can practice prayer even if we’re not sure what it means, if anything. And, even as we wander, we’re carrying with us, tucked right in the corner of our yearnings, the hope that the love of God is more healing, more lovely, more alive than anything we could rationalize or dream up. The circles of faith formation are really an invitation to deepening love and wholeness. Our whole lives can proclaim an evolution of love.
“Not all who wander are lost.”, J.R.R. Tolkien writes. So you’re not lost. You’re right where you belong on this wandering path. It might be disorienting, there may be danger, but you’re not lost. You’re on the right journey. The deliverance that’s waiting on the other side of the wilderness isn’t a tidier version of you with new and better answers. You’re becoming someone who is more loving, someone who is healing, who is more acquainted with the fragility and belovedness of us all.” Sarah Bessey
Peace, Pastor Ed