“To walk along your wall is to explore it, ask questions, and understand your experience with the help of a guide. To praise God at The Wall is to appreciate that your Redeemer is doing a healing work in you.”- Kristi Gaultiere
As Kristi Gaultiere moves on in Chapter 6 of Journey of the Soul, she opens with a list of six varied wall experiences (Type – Cause):
- Burnout – overworking in your job or ministry
- Spiritual burnout – compulsive spirituality, compassion fatigue
- Blowout – moral failing
- Personal crisis – disease, family problem, grief, or depression
- Faith crisis – disbelief or cynicism
- Dark Night of the Soul – ongoing spiritual dryness
Consequently, at The Wall overwhelming personal struggle or failure turns our world upside down. However, we come out on the other side through resting in Christ’s empathy and mercy. And, we abandon ourselves to God’s sovereign will.
Next, after The Wall (I, S, and T Stages), we step into a new world. A world of universal compassion. Here, Kristi observes, we:
- reorient to God’s unfailing goodness and always present love
- open ourselves to gray areas in life
- respond to psalms more than law
- shift our focus from external to internal motives; doing for God versus being with God
- find that our spiritual rhythms become more relational, flexible, and integrated into daily life
- more quickly extend grace to everyone
Above all, Kristi reminds us, each CHRIST Stage is good in it’s time. In addition, we find the value of our faith not in our stage, but in our love for God and neighbor. Also, as we proceed as apprentices in the I, S, and T Stages, we never totally leave the first three stages. Therefore, at times we revisit aspect of those stages. Hence, therapists refer to this as “regression in the service of growth.”
In conclusion, we need to remember that we don’t progress in linear fashion through the CHRIST Stages. Instead, we must view the stages as a spiral unique to each person.
Today’s question: What Bible verses do you find most helpful as you walk along your wall? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Lean into turbulence – high water hard!”