The Nodes of Life Part 2
May 17, 2025
The Nodes of Life Part 2
When you reach adolescence, you come to a biological and psychological milestone, or node. Adolescence is a time of storm and stress when we must find our identity apart from the rest of our family. We might not yet know who we are, but we know we are different from our brothers, sisters, and family. Our task in adolescence is to determine the way we will move in the world.
In the teens, we learn to express ourselves, experiment with various identities, and form friendships that help us develop our personalities. If we psychologically and emotionally survive adolescence, we move on to adulthood. But if we do not emerge from the teens with a healthy self-concept, that delay affects us for the rest of our lives.
As we have reflected on recently, the spiritual life also has nodes. Spiritual adolescence is when we break away from the beliefs our family gives us. We realize that to be an autonomous adult, we need our personal belief structure. On the other hand, if we stay in spiritual adolescence, we remain with secondhand beliefs we swallowed hook, line and sinker … or we stay in rebellion against them. Spiritual adolescence forces us to claim our identity apart from our family of origin, to examine the beliefs that do not match our truth and to eliminate those. We also must deal with the pushback from those who do not want us to claim our truths. Those who want us to be copies of them, encourage us to stay in the mold, the flock, and the “club.”
Spiritual adolescence makes us aware of our ability to “reproduce.” We become conscious of our spiritual capacity to engender new life in ourselves and others. We gain an understanding that our truths have power in and of themselves because we are living those truths to everyone we know. In spiritual adolescence, we realize we are connected to a power beyond ourselves and can impact others with it.
If we do not seize this spiritual developmental stage and grow beyond it, we will stay in the belief structure handed down to us. OR we may choose to shut down all growth in that department.
In spiritual adolescence, we question all that we were told are “the givens” and carefully examine everything handed down. Ultimately, we come to terms with our truths and who we are.
Spiritual practice: Have you formulated your belief structure or do you still operate from only what you were taught? If you formulated your own beliefs, why didn't you stay with the complete belief structure you stared out with?
Self-inquiry: Why would you not want to question the beliefs of the people who raised you?
Dear God,
Please grant me the courage to question all givens. Amen
