The Authentic Joy Journey Guide
Spiritual growth is both a journey and a process. The maturation process takes place in a context, and that context is the unique events and circumstances of your life’s journey. Spiritual growth is not something that happens apart from life. Life is the classroom that God uses to bring us to maturity.
The Authentic Joy Journey Guide is adapted from Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, a classical storytelling template.
Home (The Comfort Zone)
This is where we all start our journey. You will know if you are at this stage if you feel comfortable and at ease with your life. There is a certain amount of passivity at this stage. Picture Bilbo Baggins in Tolkien’s classic, The Hobbit, at his home in The Shire enjoying the secure predictability of morning walks and evening tea. A biblical example of someone at this stage would be Job before Satan attacked him. He was in a good place in life, faithfully serving God and abundantly blessed. Or what about Mary before the angel announced she would bear a child? Can you imagine her? A young bride, excited about her upcoming marriage, living a normal life unaware of what was around the corner. Sometimes we can be full of hubris at this stage, thinking we know it all and that we are untouchable. The Pharisees typified this ‘pride comes before a fall’ type of attitude.
The Call
At this stage something happens to cause us to consider leaving our comfort zone. God’s summons to grow up can happen in many ways:
• A divine encounter: God interrupts our scheduled programming with a vision, prophetic word or a visitation. This is what happened to Mary, Gideon, Jeremiah and Paul. They all encountered God in some way that was undeniable and compelling
• Tragedy: Sometimes it takes a tragedy to dislodge us from our comfort zone. It could be a serious illness, a divorce, the loss of a loved one, or the loss of a job. Whatever it is, it becomes an opportunity for us to rethink how we have been living up to that point. Job and Joseph provide biblical examples of tragedy as a call to growth
• Wake-up call: Sometimes we are also comfortable in our sin and God mercifully provides a moment of clarity for us to escape. The parable of the prodigal son illustrates this as does the woman caught in adultery who got the opportunity to ‘go and sin no more’.
This stage can elicit in us fear and doubt or excitement and hope as we react to the thought of the unknown. We do not know what lies ahead. Answering the call will require us to do life differently and we have no guarantees that it will all work out. Sometimes, we can opt to stay with the familiar instead of facing the unknown which introduces the next stage.
The Refusal
This stage, more than any other, is optional. Some of us may be gung-ho, rearing and ready to go. Others of us may need a little more… coaxing. Think of Moses and Jonah. Moses gave God excuse after excuse trying to convince God that He had picked the wrong man. But Jonah… Jonah is the poster child for this stage. It took a ride in the belly of a whale to get Jonah to heed God’s call. If we are in this stage we may be feeling fear, doubt, insecurity, indifference or pride. Remember the Pharisees again? They missed the day of their visitation.
The Departure
When we decide to heed the call, it’s adventure time! Sometimes the fear and doubt still linger on in this stage but hopefully, it’s more and more mingled with excitement and curiosity. The overarching attitude that allows us to enter fully into this stage is faith and trust in God as we surrender to His will. This is what Mary did when she said, ‘let it be to me according to your word’. This is what Joshua did when he crossed the Jordan to lead the Israelites into battle. This is what all the heroes of faith did as they heeded the call of God on their lives. Our departure may not look as ‘glamorous’, but it is no less significant in God’s eyes when we choose to trust Him. Our departures may be as big as starting a business, ministry or family, or as small as being open to a new relationship, seeing a psychologist or joining a faith community.
The Crucible
Surprise surprise, there are trials and tests along our journey. (I bet you didn’t see that coming!) Life is dangerous outside of The Shire. This is usually one of the longer stages or at least it seems that way. It is characterized by pain. Along with pain we may feel anger, confusion, fear, despair and hopelessness. David and Joseph are our models when it comes to The Crucible. As the name implies, it is in this stage that we are refined in the fiery furnace. The list of trials that each of us may face is endless; rejection by loved ones, poverty, domestic abuse, church leader abuse, illness of a child, cancer… I’m sure you can draw from your own experience. I can give you only this assurance: no adversity lasts forever if you pay attention to the lesson. The Crucible is the means God uses to get to the deep issues at the foundation of your character – your motives and desires. The furnace of fiery trials brings the real you to the surface and offers you the opportunity for real transformation. This opportunity for change introduces The Epic Battle.
The Epic Battle
Do you know that one scene in the movie where the hero and the villain finally face off? This is that scene, except the battle is not with the villain but with yourself to become who God intended for you to become. Your ‘inner villain’ is exposed in The Crucible and now you have a choice – will you let him live or put him to death? External trials prompt an internal struggle. We see this in the moments when David has the opportunity to kill Saul and chooses not to. Also, when Joseph faces his brothers who sold him into slavery and after much back and forth (you can see that he is battling with himself), he finally tells them what they meant for evil, God used for good. But perhaps the character who most epitomizes this inner battle is Jacob’s all-night struggle with the Lord where Jacob (the deceiver) comes away with a new name – Israel (one who struggles with God). The whole journey hinges on this stage. This is when the Potter tests the quality of the vessel. Is it fit for use? This stage can be a lonely and desperate time when nobody seems to understand what you are going through and few are there for you in your time of travail. Think of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane sweating drops of blood while the disciples slept.
The Reward
If we are victorious in battle, then we reap the reward! In the movies, the protagonist gets a treasure of some sort. Or maybe he gets the girl. But in our story, the hero reaps a spiritual reward. Maybe it’s spiritual authority over a city. Maybe it’s love and joy in your home. Maybe you become a recognized leader in some sphere of culture. The reward is unique to your call but whatever it is, it is good! Abraham had a son, inherited a land and became the father of faith. David was made king. Joseph became Pharoah’s right-hand man, ruling over Egypt. Daniel had a similar story of ruling over Babylon. This stage is a time of celebration, joy, peace and gratitude.
The Return Home
No reward is for yourself (at least not in the kingdom). Now you must return home to share the reward with the community. Joseph saved his family from starvation and poverty. Job prayed for his friends. David ensured that Solomon became the most wise and successful king that ever lived. The journey to maturity is not complete until we turn around and help others along their journey. This book is one example of that. It is my attempt to share all that I have learnt on my journey with as many people as possible. If we do that, we will discover a new place of fulfilment, purpose, community, belonging and well-being. At first, our circumstances may not look different on the outside, but we will be different, and our experience of the circumstances will be different, and eventually what’s on the inside of us will change what’s around us.
It is easier to think of the journey as three distinct phases:
Awakening
o Home
o The Call
o The Refusal
o The Departure
Processing
o The Crucible
o The Epic Battle
Joyful Partnership
o The Reward
o The Return Home
This is just a map, not a formula. Everyone’s journey will look different. You may go forward and then backwards. You may also be at one stage in one area of your life and at another stage in another area of your life. The journey can also be interpreted as a cycle, with The Return Home eventually becoming your Comfort Zone until God elicits another Call for you to grow and you go around the loop again.
REFLECTION
- Which phase of the journey do you feel that you are in right now?
- What comes up for you as you process this with God?
