Searching for a Second Simplicity: Spiritual Coming of Age Stories
“For the simplicity on this side of complexity, I wouldn’t give you a fig. But for the simplicity on the other side of complexity, for that I would give you anything I have.”
This is no secret: I love YA novels. I love the way teenage protagonists encounter complexity and difficulty and first love and heartbreak, cocooning through to metamorphoses, to coming of age, to the first whispers of adulthood. I love the intensity of universal human experiences magnified by hormones and angst and idealism.
I love reading about the intensity, I should say - not living through it. Coming of age is not fun.
But it’s necessary. The book I’m working on this year is a spiritual coming of age story - my story of moving from a “first naivete” through complexity and darkness to a kind of second simplicity. Of moving from “Jesus loves me, this I know,” to “wait, what?” and to “_______” and finally back again to “Jesus loves me, this I know.”
I’ve asked some of my friends to share parts of their spiritual coming of age stories here on my blog over the next few months, beginning in September. They won’t be writing, necessarily, about the moment that they found that second simplicity, but about the moments of darkness before it.
Before the "aha" moment, there comes an "oh no" moment - a moment in the life of faith when a confident catechism answer turns into a question. When a new experience seems to defy a long-held belief. When certainty evaporates into mystery, and clarity shrouds itself in darkness. This is the beginning of the spiritual coming of age.
Richard Rohr and Brian McClaren both write about this. In Naked Spirituality, McClaren talks about his early years of faith and ministry, then writes:
“Now, almost four decades later, I cringe when I hear the teachings that were standard fare back then. I have discarded those theological wineskins, but I treasure more than ever the wine of the Spirit that was somehow conveyed to me through them. That suit of theological clothing doesn’t fit me anymore but the naked spirituality that sustains me today originally came to me dressed in it.”
We don’t disparage the discarded wineskins. But there are moments when we realized that the wineskin was not the wine. And moments when we realized that though we believed in the wine, we’d never actually tasted it.
These were the moments that moved us into complexity and darkness and questions- into the beginnings of spiritual adulthood. These are stories we want to tell, to be honest about the complexity of adult life and faith. We tell them for each other, and as a way of testifying to the truth that the life of faith does not always follow a straight or sequential path. If you feel yourself spiraling down, that can be reason for hope, not despair.
I still have a few open spaces in the series, so if you’re interested in contributing your story, drop me an email {coamyp at gmail dot com}.