The examples are endless: experiences of prayer, confession, silence, retreats \u2014 the list is endless<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nIronically, positive experiences can be just as limiting as negative ones.\u00a0 Negative experiences of a given chapter in the spiritual life can close us off completely.\u00a0 Positive experiences can give us a single point of contact beyond which we never grow.<\/p>\n
What is a bit alarming is to realize how early in life we embrace those once-now-and-forever ways of looking at things.\u00a0 As I have worked through my own impressions and as I have talked with others about theirs, I\u2019ve been surprised to learn how early those impressions can take shape \u2014 many of them before we exit our adolescence.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s understandable.\u00a0 Those are volatile, impressionable years during which we embrace strong opinions about the world around us.\u00a0 Those opinions help us to test our impressions and differentiate ourselves from the world around us.\u00a0 As important as that process is, however, it is not clear that every opinion we embrace by age 18 is necessarily worth taking with us the rest of the way through life.<\/p>\n
Spiritual maturity is about forming impressions, making commitments, and holding on to both with gentle humility and a willingness to admit that there might be more.\u00a0 Any journey into God is, by definition, provisional and growing.<\/p>\n
Take time to do an inventory of your deepest convictions about and impressions of the spiritual life.\u00a0 Which ones (positive and negative) are defining?\u00a0 Which ones have narrowed your journey and hardened into once-now-and-forever thinking?<\/p>\n
Then ask yourself \u2014 do you trust God enough to move beyond those moments?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the prevailing problems for all of us spiritually is that our experiences define and delimit our understanding of the spiritual life.\u00a0 We close ourselves off to the language and experiences of the journey based on a single experience \u2014 be it positive or negative \u2014 and that becomes the once-now-and-forever way in which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":240,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spiritual-perspectives"],"yoast_head":"\n
Once-Now-and-Forever<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One of the prevailing problems for all of us spiritually is that our experiences define and delimit our understanding of the spiritual life.\u00a0 We close\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2011\/02\/once-now-and-forever\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Once-Now-and-Forever\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the prevailing problems for all of us spiritually is that our experiences define and delimit our understanding of the spiritual life.\u00a0 We close\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2011\/02\/once-now-and-forever\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"What God Wants for Your Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-02-18T16:42:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Frederick Schmidt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Frederick Schmidt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2011\/02\/once-now-and-forever\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2011\/02\/once-now-and-forever\/\",\"name\":\"Once-Now-and-Forever\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-02-18T16:42:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-02-18T16:42:46+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/#\/schema\/person\/ddfdcfcb384439499b89f4fc91aa3f21\"},\"description\":\"One of the prevailing problems for all of us spiritually is that our experiences define and delimit our understanding of the spiritual life.\u00a0 We close\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2011\/02\/once-now-and-forever\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2011\/02\/once-now-and-forever\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2011\/02\/once-now-and-forever\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Once-Now-and-Forever\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/\",\"name\":\"What God Wants for Your Life\",\"description\":\"Thoughts on the perennial demands and changing shape of Christian spirituality.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/#\/schema\/person\/ddfdcfcb384439499b89f4fc91aa3f21\",\"name\":\"Frederick Schmidt\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/683afd03c0a0abb940f8fe5cb3183269?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/683afd03c0a0abb940f8fe5cb3183269?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Frederick Schmidt\"},\"description\":\"The Reverend Dr. Frederick W. Schmidt, Jr. is inaugural holder of the Rueben P. Job Chair in Spiritual Formation and a Senior Scholar at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, IL. He is also Vice Rector at Good Shepherd, Brentwood, TN; an Episcopal Priest; spiritual director; retreat facilitator; conference leader; and writer. He is the author of numerous published articles and reviews, as well as several books: A Still Small Voice: Women, Ordination and the Church (Syracuse University Press, 1998), The Changing Face of God (Morehouse, 2000), When Suffering Persists (Morehouse, 2001), in Italian translation: Sofferenza, All ricerca di una riposta (Torino: Claudiana, 2004), What God Wants for Your Life \ufeff(Harper, 2005), Conversations with Scripture: Revelation (Morehouse, 2005), \ufeffConversations with Scripture: Luke \ufeff(Morehouse, 2009), and The Dave Test (Abingdon, 2013). He and his wife, Natalie (who is also an Episcopal priest), live in Arrington, TN. 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