(or ... are we really here to change lives?)
I've been attending a group for spiritual transformation for almost three years now, ever since my return from medical leave. And it's been helpful. I feel at home there, and it's a good place of honest sharing, non-judgemental acceptance, and hope-based encouragement.
Kind of like church at its best.
Last night what we were reading and sharing took me back in my mind and heart to my first experience of a group like this -- just over three years ago, as part of my medical leave. I felt like I was back there again at that hinge point in my life, and it felt good. To be able to visualize the place we met and the people who were there. To remember how helpful the men of that first group were for me. To remember in particular the way they reached out to me the first time I was there, how a few of them right away helped me understand the process and the goals of the group, and how one in particular helped (encouraged? invited? forced?) me to be open and accountable to the group about my own spiritual work and progress. It really was a turning-point, a hinge-point in my life.
Kind of like church at its best?
And it made me wonder: am I now of similar help to others, as the men of that first group were to me? The presence of two newcomers to the group last night only sharpened the question. They were there because they too are looking for something -- for something new in their behaviour, something deeper in their spirit, real change and transformation of their lives. And am I confident enough in my own transformation, am I practiced enough in my own process of spiritual growth, to be able to help and encourage others in the process of spiritual growth and transformation that they are looking for? Do I even still expect the group -- myself and the others in it, to be a people and a place of intentional change and of expanding, shared, mutually encouraged, expected, hard-won, ongoing spiritual transformation?
Kind of like church at its best?
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