Good morning…
Weekly worship and Sunday school is one way to feed our deep need for collaborative community. Small group learning opportunities also offer us a way to learn and grow with God and one another. We, in the Women’s Ministry at Northside Church, begin most of our weekday classes next Monday, September 13th. If you are looking to engage in a collaborative community of women, please browse the description of our fall offerings, held throughout the week, mornings, afternoons, or evenings, Zoom or in-person, and register for a class or two meeting your spiritual needs.
People who know me know that I spend a lot of time with God trying to discern which book to study in our home with small groups of women, semester by semester. The quote that sold me on our book for this semester appears on page 11 of Sacred Rhythms: Arranging Our Lives for Spiritual Transformation by Ruth Haley Barton.
“Perhaps one of the most basic things we need to understand about spiritual transformation is that it is full of mystery,” write Barton. “Paul alludes to the process in his writings by using two metaphors.”
- “The first is the process by which an embryo is formed in a mother’s womb: ‘I am in labor until Christ is formed in you’ (Galatians 4:19). The miracle of conception, the formation of the embryo and the birth process itself are natural but also full of mystery. …even though I think I understand the facts of life, something in the whole process remains a mystery to me, something I cannot control or make happen. The miracle of birth is always a mystery. It is a God thing. Every single time.”
- “It is the same with the process of metamorphosis. Paul refers to this process in Romans 12:2 when he says, ‘Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed (metamorphoo) by the renewing of your mind.’ The greek word metamorphoo is ‘metamorphosis’ in English: the process by which a caterpillar enters into the darkness of the cocoon in order to emerge, eventually, changed almost beyond recognition. This change is so profound that the caterpillar transcends its previous existence to take on a completely different form with a completely different set of capacities. I doubt that the caterpillar has much cognitive understanding of the process itself or the end product. Something much more primal is at work. Something in the very essence of this little being say, It is time. And so the caterpillar obeys this inexplicable inner urge and enters in.”
“Both of these metaphors place the process of spiritual transformation squarely in the category that we call mystery: something outside the range of normal human activity and understanding that can be grasped only through divine revelation and brought about by divine activity,” concludes Barton. “What does this mean for those of us who are seeking to give ourselves more fully and concretely to the process of spiritual transformation?”
The in-person classes I am facilitating at our home this semester are filled to capacity, but I welcome you to buy this insightful book, exploring the wisdom intimately with God alone or sharing your spiritual transformation with your own collaborative community.
You can no more predict the path of the wind than you can explain how a child’s bones are formed in a mother’s womb. Even more, you will never understand the workings of the God who made all things. Get up early to sow your seed, and in the evening find worthwhile things to do, for you never know which will profit you—maybe this, maybe that, maybe both (Ecclesiastes 11:5-6, VOICE).
…Sue…
