Falling Upward

My small group is a reflection of the GRACE of Jesus Christ. We laugh, we cry, we eat, we read scripture, we pray but most importantly we listen to one another. This is one of few places that I am able to truly reflect my struggles, my questions and my JOYS!  I am challenged to do more of this reflection through blogging.  Our small group is reading Falling Upward by Richard Rohr.

The message of Falling Upward is straightforward and bracing: the spiritual life is not static. You will come to a crisis in your life, and after the crisis, if you are open to it, you will enter a space of spiritual refreshment, peace and compassion that you could not have imagined before.

Rohr's framework leans heavily on Carl Jung. The spiritual life has two stages. In the first half of life, you are devoted to establishing yourself; you focus on making a career and on finding friends and a partner; you are crafting your identity. Spiritually, people in the first half of life are often drawn to order, to religious routine. We are developing habits and letting ourselves be shaped by the norms and practices of our family and community.

Then—a crisis. "Some kind of falling," Rohr says, is necessary for continued spiritual development. "Normally a job, fortune, or reputation has to be lost," writes Rohr, "a death has to be suffered, a house has to be flooded, or a disease has to be endured." The crisis can be devastating. The crisis undoes you. The flood doesn't just flood your house—it washes out your spiritual life. What you thought you knew about living the spiritual life no longer suffices for the life you are living.

In the main, however, Rohr brings us good hope for a journey with the Holy in our second half of life: we do not travel alone; there is redemption in the pain and loss we all experience; we grow deeper into the heart of God. This is good news as we feel ourselves falling, upward!

Rohr challenges readers to examine the following questions as you think about your first half of life:

Who are my people? Where do we come from? Where do I fit into my family? Who was I closest to in my family? Who are the people closest to me now? Who has had the most influence on me? How have the places I’ve lived shaped me? How did I find my work? Have I found my purpose or calling?

By God's wonderful grace, I am reflecting and answering these questions...