During our spiritual journey, we often resemble the squirming child in the back seat: “Are we there yet?” God’s response is a firm but loving “No! You have miles to drive, rivers to ford, and mountains to climb before the end. Practice patience and find joy in the ever-changing scenery of your life.”

Since Exodus times and even ages before, a popular metaphor for reaching God—spiritually, mentally, and physically - is a journey. We cannot stand still and grow. Spiritual development requires movement—onward, upward, inward. Saint Teresa of Avila used the metaphor of our souls as an interior castle, where we progress from room to room until we reach full union with God. To stand still would be to remain always in the castle’s outer chambers, satisfied that we know all there is to know about God.

Does spiritual advancement, however, sometimes require standing still, we might ask. In the mad pace of modern life, it is comforting to think so. But would we really welcome and be satisfied with a God who gave and gave without any return? We are loved first so that we may love others with a love which faintly echoes God’s sacrificial gift of his Son. How else can we become what we were created to be?

I mourn for those who feel satisfied with their understanding of God and their current spiritual lives. How sustaining can a supposedly final and certain faith be? Life throws too many unexpected challenges at us. Our childhood understanding of God is of little help to adults who are suffering or dying.

As we mature, props of our own sense of self-worth are knocked from under us one by one. Increasing in wisdom means coming to terms with our growing insufficiencies. We cannot make it alone. We need the supportive love of others. At the end, because those around us ultimately disappear, we need to discover more of God’s presence, which will never disappear. Life requires a gradual peeling away of reliance on things of this world—including ourselves—until God alone is left.