Continually

Ephesians 2:21 says, “You are rising like the perfectly fitted stones of the temple; and your lives are being built up together upon the ideal foundation laid  by the apostles and prophets, and best of all, you are connected to the Head Cornerstone of the building, the Anointed One, Jesus Christ himself! This entire building is under construction and is continually growing under his supervision until it rises up completed as the holy temple of the Lord himself. This means that God is transforming each one of you into the Holy of Holies, his dwelling place, through the power of the Holy Spirit living in you!”

As a Spiritual Director, I come alongside others in their spiritual growth journey and witness what the Holy Spirit is continually deconstructing and reconstructing in their hearts, bodies, and souls. I consider it a privilege and delight to journey with others as they grow, transform, and come into a deeper relationship with the Anointed One, Jesus Christ Himself. 

Soul Transformation: The process of spiritual growth involves a fundamental change in a person's sacred or spiritual life. 

Soul transformation is a continual process where we humbly submit ourselves to our supervisor, the Lord Himself. We undergo and grow in this construction process under the Lord's supervision until we rise completed, fully restored, by remaining connected to Him. 

My older brother, Karl, is an architect, builder, and innovative designer of exquisite modern Hawaiian homes. His company is called C2C-Builders, where C2C stands for Concept 2 Completion. Karl executes according to his company name, and I am inspired whenever I see a home he has created and completed. Of course, I’m talking about the type of homes that are magazine-worthy, jaw-droppingly beautiful, breathtaking works of art. He designs and constructs... concept to completion.  The funny thing about Karl is that his home is not complete; his home has been under ongoing construction for 20 years! He is continually deconstructing, recreating, reconfiguring, rethinking, remodeling, and removing the old to replace them with the newest creative idea.

Karl’s home reminds me a lot of our spiritual transformation process.  It’s just like being continually under construction.  The remodel is never complete. I have always had a hard time accepting a project that doesn’t have an end date. I was a project manager at Intel Corporation for the first ten years of my career.  When you manage a project, there is a start and completion date.  For me, there used to be no greater satisfaction than completing a project. Nothing about project management in the high-tech business world states there will be no end. Project management is all about completion--push, pull, drive, deliver, check the boxes, clean up the loose ends, complete, and move on to the next project. I excelled at it!

In my transition to becoming a Spiritual Director rather than a project manager, a radical career change by anyone's definition, there was a significant deconstruction process that God had to demolish in me before the transformation He desired was possible. The biggest deconstruction was my belief system. I had to come to believe that spiritual formation is not a project...it’s never complete... It's a process.  We never graduate, the work is never done, the journey does not end, and the discovery of who we are in Christ is not completed. It's continual, and we have the perfect supervisor to monitor our progress.  Thankfully, I also have a gift in process management, so somehow, under God's supervision, my slow and steady transformation occurred. I progressed from project manager to process manager, business world to spiritual world, and compulsive to contemplative. 

My sister-in-law, Becky, has felt the pain of living innever complete homeete. However, she has endured this unfinished, messy, disruptive, and continual construction with grace. The truth is that Becky has been a rockstar during the whole process; she possesses a skill I do not--patience--and deserves a medal for living through the construction for 20 years.  Similar to the building process, spiritual formation can feel painful in times of growth.  We might feel incomplete as God deconstructs our false selves, reveals lies we have told ourselves and sheds on the darkness of our souls, which can leave us feeling raw. However, He never leaves us there. God is continually with us in the process of spiritual growth. 

Ephesians 2:21 compares spiritual formation to the building process. It states that God is our foundation, and we are secured to, Him, who is the Cornerstone. We are like a continually growing building as we are connected to Him and others.  As a lover of people and often caring more than I need to about others' journeys through life, I find it completely freeing to know God is our personal supervisor.  Each of us has a supervisor who is in charge of our construction and deconstruction process. I don’t need to push or pull anyone during their spiritual growth process because I believe God does the growing, transforming, deconstructing, remodeling, and rebuilding. It’s not me causing spiritual change but the power of the Holy Spirit.  I am solely a trained witness and a soul friend who has undergone my own continual construction process and delights in journeying with others as they grow in their relationship with God.   - Rebekah Cancelosi