Christian Living

Going in Spirals

by Terry Barlow
02/03/14
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   Sometimes when we feel like we’re going in circles, we are……but there’s more to it than that. The circles are “winding upward” and are really spirals, as this proverb would indicate: “The way of life winds upward for the discerning, that he or she may turn away from hell below.” (Proverbs 15 verse 24) It seems like we’re “going in circles” in the sense of being stuck because we are seeing the same things or kinds of things as we go round. But in actuality we are going in circles in the spiral unstuck sense, because we are seeing those things from a slightly different angle, a higher angle by faith!   Yet it must be remembered too that for every higher spiritual level reached, there is different, more subtle opposition.  And if it is true that rhythm is a perfected union between permanence and change, this proverb would also imply that it is not so in hell, where there is nothing redemptive about the repetition. There the angle of perception doesn’t vary, unless to sink to ever lower depths of self-centered cynicism and suspicion.

   It's not nearly as important as knowing how deeply God loves us, but it is important to know also how much we are hated by our spiritual adversary. The more one ascends the more vicious is that hatred, requiring that much deeper of a revelation of the depth and tenderness of God's love.