Upward. 1

Two Halves

The first in a series of posts inspired by our current Book Circle on Falling Upward: A Spirituality for The Two Halves of Life, by Richard Rohr. This book has had a profound influence on my understanding of the spiritual journey. I hope you find it equally helpful.

Who is the wisest person you know? The person who, seemingly without effort, emanates a loving, grounded presence… Who seems mature beyond their years, or perhaps mature because of their years… Someone who inevitably offers a larger perspective, a redemptive view, a unifying and healing force. A sage and sane voice in a crazy world.

Now think of the most foolish… no, we’ll skip that step! You get the idea.

Sometimes it almost feels like, when we consider the full spectrum of life, that people live on entirely different planes. By different rules. Different motivations, goals, perspectives. And that one person is eminently trustworthy while another is simply too immature, too unevolved to be taken seriously. Almost like there are two halves of life, and that some folks cross over early, some cross over late, and some never cross at all.

Eleven years ago, Richard Rohr wrote my favorite book of his, and it changed everything for me. I had never been given a paradigm to explain how, long after a “born again” experience, the entire gameplan of life could—and should—change so dramatically. Not so much a 180-degree pivot as a monochrome-to-color unveiling. Rohr explains it better…

The first half of life, he suggests, is about building a solid container: a sense of identity, of tribe, of truth, of behaviors and formulas and fixtures that provide security and direction in this journey. A necessary stage that cannot be skipped. A stage that can get us “saved,” but a stage that can never actually usher us into the divine reality Jesus called “the kingdom of God.” Which is why he said that this divine reality requires a “repentance”—a changing of mind. Not just changing our opinion on a topic, but changing the very way we think! Re-wiring our minds with an entirely new paradigm.

If the first half of life is about building the container, the second half is about finding the contents for that container—our True Self and our True Journey.

“The first journey,” Rohr says, “is always about externals, formulas, superficial emotions, flags and badges, correct rituals, Bible quotes, and special clothing, all of which largely substitute for actual spirituality” (p.12). And although that description sounds a bit pejorative, it is indeed a necessary beginning. We don’t criticize children for being children unless they’re still acting like children when they’re thirty or forty. But if you do hit midlife and you’re still living from a childish mindset, there is something tragic about a life unlived, a potential untapped, an inner life yet to be revealed.

So by extension, the second journey is more about internals, about relational mystery, about deep longing and the confidence to question and explore. It’s about the substance within ritual, about timeless interpretations of the Bible, and about individual freedom as a path toward mature spirituality. Essentially, it’s about growing up as spiritual beings. Intrigued?

So, in light of this idea, why would anyone want to remain a spiritual child? “Though by this time you ought to be teachers,” the writer of Hebrews laments, “you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!” Well, there are some reasons that we sometimes resist growing up.

There are many responsibilities that kids don’t yet have to bear… and sometimes still don’t want to bear after college. Adulthood brings complexities that kids aren’t ready or interested in parsing out. When we translate that into the psychospiritual realm, the easy answers of Sunday School are sometimes hard to trade in for the uncertainties and unpredictabilities of the adult world. There is something terribly comforting about knowing exactly what God means by every verse, exactly who’s going to heaven, and exactly who should be voted onto the Supreme Court.

The second half actually calls for faith in the face of Mystery. A faith that requires unknowing and uncertainty… or it wouldn’t be faith. Are you ready for that?

growing the soul

Take an honest personal inventory of your worldview. Is it inclusive or exclusive, open or defended, mysterious or defined, tribal or unifying? Can you see a transition ahead, or perhaps behind? How would you articulate your “first half” and “second half”?

serving the world

Now apply this paradigm to the larger human story. Would you say that our planet is more in the “first half” or “second half” of its journey? Does that usher in any fresh hope for a coming awakening? I hope so.

takeaway

Transition!