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The Endless Possibilities model, as I’ve envisioned it over the past two decades, is a phenomenological (experience-centered) articulation of how journeys progress through time in response to God’s will being revealed.  The model describes the flow of events and assigns significance to those events by linking them together across 5 phases or stages.  The stages do not concern themselves with normative content (the goal and events of my journey are not normative goals and events for others peoples’ journeys), but rather with patterns of progress toward revealed goals (themes) for our lives, so that we might be faithful.

In answer to the question, "What is a spiritual journey?", EP asserts that a journey is a 5 phase experience representing a person’s response to God’s call (both on a conscious and unconscious level).  God guides us through life by offering numerous journeys, and each embraced journey represents preparation for future journeys.  It is a pattern template (in spiral form) for embracing life’s challenges and beauty, from which wisdom flows.

"What is a spiritual journey?" is a tricky question, because it should be split up into two parts - representing the perspectives of both partners to the covenant experience (people and God).  The above definition is really an expression of how we experience our journeys.  As we go through time, we experience the progression of the five phases over and over again.  God manages the progression of the journey, and of course, is able to see it from our perspective even better than we can.

But God, who is beyond time, more fundamentally experiences journeys and their phases in a different way.  Thus, the question remains: "How does God experience or live out the EP journey pattern?"

A spiritual journey represents an experience through time.  In a way that is analogous to light being simultaneously described as both wave and particle, spiritual journeys may simultaneously be defined as both theme and events.  Both are different yet accurate accounts of the same reality.  This is a crucial point, since it lies at the heart of the rest of these considerations.

Events move forward in time (I cannot sip a cup of coffee until I’ve first entered a restaurant and ordered my drink).  Themes, in contrast, do not move forward in time, because they are revealed in phase 2 or hinted at in phase 1 or in prior journeys as if they are settled already in God’s mind - as if they are real.  These destination goals are not hypothetical wishes to God, but represent God’s will because in God’s mind they do exist and have been experienced (by Him).  No wonder the Hebrew prophets often expressed their future predictions in past tense!  In this sense, all phase 2 calls to journey are prophetic in nature.

People primarily experience journeys as events moving forward in time (this is obvious).  What is not so obvious is that God primarily experiences journeys as themes moving backwards in time.  God thinks teleologically (the significance of creation is defined by its purpose or end).  God starts with the purpose or end and then works backwards to create life (journeys) which will embody this end (God’s will) as it moves forward in time.  Analogy: I used to solve math problems by finding the answer in the back of the book (the goal of the equation problem) and working backwards.  For God, the solution (the goal of the journey or its destination) is logically prior to the problem (the start of the journey).

The call to journey and the revealed theme flow backwards from the reality of the journey goal.  Phase 4 determines phase 2’s emergence when a journey is conceived of as theme - that is, from God’s perspective, but certainly not from ours.  Phase 2 determines phase 4 when a journey is conceived of as events - this is our perspective, but not God’s.  When we feel premonitions of future journey calls in phase 1, we are really hearing the echoes of phase 4 as it passes through phase 2 (moving backwards through time).

              /             /             /             /             /

Phases 1            2              3              4             5   Journeys represent interactions

                                                                                between themes and events

            /             /             /             /             /

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Events move forward in time

When a potential event is linked to a theme (when it becomes an expression of a theme), the event becomes an actualized part of our journey.  Other potential events which could have been part of our journey cancel each other out in this process, as do potential themes which do not become part of our journeys.  A spiritual journey, then, is a single theme interacting with multiple events over a span of time.  In this interaction, the theme gives significance to the events that they otherwise would not have.

Themes and events are bound together (linked) through our (and God’s) decisions, reactions and embraced responsibilities (actions) as we move through journey phases.

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