Thoughts on Sanctification

Life’s rhythms of days and months and years; of morning, noon, and night; of work and rest and play; of endings and new beginnings; and those confusing “in-between” times all become the arena of transformation by the sanctifying Spirit.
As life unfolds, those who have experienced the moments of transformation, saving and sanctifying grace, discover that the process of transformation continues day by day.

The endings in life become the opportunity of the Spirit to “guide” and “teach” us as Jesus promised in John 14:26 and 16:23. Endings happen—the children grow up, a career ends, a marriage fails, a deadly diagnosis changes everything, a job is lost, failure camps on your front step, the divorce becomes final, a beloved one’s coma proves final.

Endings hurt. The ending that hurts most is when you yourself turn out to be what you always said, and really believed, you would never be. You see yourself as a loyal friend. Then one day, to save yourself, you betray a friend. You see yourself as the eternally faithful spouse. Then at the conjunction of maximum opportunity and maximum temptation you sin. Your own image of yourself crashes and burns.

It is hard to see the hand of God working to redeem our endings. But the time will come when you can see His loving providence and His sovereignty in those painful endings. No, God did not send those hurtful endings, but He worked through them to sanctify and transform something needed in your character and faith.

After an ending we usually find ourselves lost and disoriented, disengaged and discouraged. One woman said, after an unwanted divorce, “My self-esteem as a woman and as a person was all tied up in his reaction to me. I didn’t just lose a husband. I lost a way of evaluating myself. He was my mirror. I don’t know how I look anymore.” From Transitions, Wm. Bridges, Perseus Books, 1980, 95.

The empty time between an ending and a new beginning is often called the trapeze stage. You have released the bar, let go of some job, relationship, some dependency, some security and you feel as if you are sailing in mid-air and the next trapeze bar you hope to grab onto is no where in sight.

The “In-between Times” are lonely, dark and produce their own sad, romantic music. Your actions are as aimless as a man trying to shovel smoke. You pray but it seems God’s line is busy. The Bible seems to be answering only questions you are not asking. During such aching times of spiritual despair, Archbishop Trent said, “one’s own life is a most unwelcome gift.” From Reflecting God, 139.

Our instinct is to rush from an ending to a new beginning, but that is usually a mistake. We need time to ache, to admit our failures, to face our fears, to process our grief. During the “In-between Times” we taste new possibilities, and even fashion a new identity. Further, wisdom is the honey that the bees of the “In-between Times” make. You can’t find it anywhere else.

The trapeze stage can be turned into a time of fertile transformation. Saint Paul started out in a frenzy for God. His zeal was good, but he drove everybody crazy. He was such a pain that it was suggested that he leave town. Not on a retreat to the Ozarks, or a vacation in the Bahamas. No, Paul spent years in the Arabian desert in heart-searching prayer. But when Paul walked out of the desert three years later he had been transformed from an obnoxious zealot to a missionary who would plant the Gospel in a dozen countries!

Such times of transforming withdrawal can be seen in the lives of Moses, Gregory the Great, Abraham Lincoln, and in the life of Jesus himself.

When the time is right the Spirit leads us out of the desert of the “In-between Time” into a new beginning. By this time a lot of sanctifying grace has been absorbed, and you have changed a lot in many ways.
From the book 'Reflecting God', 142-144.