I have been thinking a lot recently about the steps of spiritual formation. Not sure why but although I have abstractly recognized it as such, I have never before really thought about there being specific steps or stages of a spiritual journey. I have been involved with a group at church that has been looking at this and, well, it's been interesting. To some in the group, who have been at this discipleship thing for awhile, this all seems pretty common sense and is top of mind for them. For others of us, though, it has led to great soul searching and introspection as we have looked at our own lives.

What we're looking at -- spiritual formation -- is a journey and, while I am now convinced there are specific stages, I do think we all end up on our own timelime. Depending upon our histories and paradigms, we all may get "hung up" at various points on the continuum. We may all hit times that require additional seeking and study to progress to the next phase.

In an attempt to name the stages of spiritual formation, though, I want to kick out the following words ... how do these resonate with you? Do they describe your pathway? What have been points when you got "hung up" or "stalled out"?

Great food for thought ...

Here are my words to describe what I see as the stages ...

Listening (to others)
Embracing (the truth)
Seeking (God's direction)
Serving (out of love)
Leading (others to Christ)

I kept trying to make a neat acronym out of these words ... couldn't quite get there ... LESSL doesn't mean a whole lot.