Coracle Trust E-Reflections

Marking the Way

Tuesday 29 June 2010

A need for inns on roads, islands in seas,
Halts for discoveries to be shared,
Maps checked, notes compared;
A need, at times, of each for each,
Direct as the need of throat and tongue for speech.

Not Love Perhaps, ASJ Tessimond

In its infancy the Christian faith was called the Way.  Pausing again between phases, we consider, Where are we going?

Each faith stage has its gifts and challenges.  Each describes impulses, movements and desires that people of God have experienced over the centuries.  Writers on the subject of stages of faith and experiences of life strongly agree that these are not strictly age related or linear, no one stage is better than any other – God is present after all! Each is necessary, good and right.  In some respects we continue to pass through and carry each phase within us, the proportion of aspects changing.  There is always struggle and surprise, regression and growth, loss and discovery.  There is however a journey to be had, such as…

Stages of Life and Faith:

Life stages: Birth (0-2 years), Infancy-Childhood (2-12 years), Adolescence (12-18 years).
Gifts/challenges: Trust/mistrust, Autonomy/guilt, Identity/identity confusion.
Faith characteristics: Conformity and concrete answers

Life stage: Young adulthood (21 years-).
Gifts/challenges: Passion- Intimacy/Isolation. 
Faith characteristics: Faith that is owned/chosen for self, regress to certainties or move on?

Life stage: Mid-Life (35 years-)   
Gifts/challenges: Generativity/Stagnation. 
Faith characteristics: Questioning, non-conforming, exploring and integrating.

Life stage: Elderhood/Old age (60 years-) 
Gifts/challenges: Wisdom – Integrity/Despair. 
Faith characteristics:  Attracted to and accepts paradox and mystery.

Orientation: Faith as Life happens

Noting chapters in faith helps to inform, orientate and guide us, keeping life and faith fused with God central throughout. Life happens and it relates to and impacts upon faith not merely as test or context but as an agent and as a maturer.  Life is gift as well as struggle.  Where I am is where God is – present to and engaged with my faith.  And that faith has somewhere to go.