The Lectio Letter - Issue #83 - The Way On Is Not The Way Back - Mapping the Seasons of Faith, Pt. 2

The endless cycle of idea and action, Endless invention, endless experiment,

Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;

Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;

Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word.

All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance, All our ignorance brings us nearer to death, But nearness to death no nearer to GOD.

Where is the Life we have lost in living?

Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?

Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries

Bring us farther from GOD and nearer to the Dust.

— TS Elliot The Rock

Welcome to Issue #83 of the Lectio Letter. This members-only newsletter is filled with music, film and food suggestions, links, and an article written by yours truly.

This is Part II of a series called “Mapping the Seasons of Faith”. In the first part (which you can read here), I reflected on the sweet beginnings of faith. Everything seems exciting, simple and unreflective. Put simply, Faith is working for us. That is, we love God and the new community we’ve become a part of it essentially because it is filling a deep need within us. There is nothing wrong with that, it’s the only place to begin, after all so many people who came to Jesus during his earthly ministry came with their needs. But Christian faith is about more than just meeting your felt needs and sooner or later, a lever-version of Jesus, who does what we asked when we need it no longer helps us grow into mature followers.

Part of what trips many up on this journey is, what I explored in Part 1, where the only vision of growth we receive is from naive early faith, through understanding to leadership. This creates an increasing gap between what we do and who we know ourselves to be at a deeper level. At some stage in every persons journey of faith they encounter what I’ve termed the ‘immovable object’. It is a reality, normally a deeply painful one, which requires a deep renegotiation of what we thought was true about how life works and who God is. In this moment it is very tempting to dispense with Faith in the midst of pain and disillusionment and find another compelling narrative which will help you make meaning of your life. I’m convinced that is tempting but a deeply dead end road. Read the rest with a free trial below if you are not already a member.

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