David Benner seems to dash a founding idea of these spirituality blog posts when he writes:

“When applied to the spiritual life, the metaphor of a journey is both helpful and somewhat misleading. Helpfully it reflects the fact that the essence of spirituality is a process–specifically, a process of transformation. Unhelpfully it obscures the fact that we are already what we seek and where we long to arrive–specifically, in God. Once we realize this, the nature of the journey reveals itself to be more one of awakening than accomplishment, more one of spiritual awareness than spiritual achievement.” David G. Benner, The Gift of Being Yourself. Expanded ed. (Downers Grove, Ill: IVP Books, 2015), page 3.

Like so many other things, Benner points out, the metaphor of spiritual pilgrimage is a coin with two sides. Yes, it can be helpful; but not always and not in every detail.

I tend to find it more helpful than not. So let me speak about his objection that “it obscures the fact that we are already what we seek and where we long to arrive–specifically, in God.” This is true. But only, or especially, for people who are believers. There are others who do not (yet?) believe. They are seeking Him yet. Perhaps in unhelpful way or in unhelpful places. But seeking nonetheless. In seeking, they are on a journey to a place and to the One they do not know.

Believers, on the other hand, are clearly “already … where we long to arrive.”

So how can we use the ‘spiritual life as pilgrimage’ metaphor if we are already where we want to be, that is, close to God or even in God?

First, we say that the seekers – while already in God in a sense – are still ‘on the road’ to that place where they can finally see that God is as close as their own skin.

But, second, I believe we can also say that believers in God are still themselves ‘on the road’ as they seek a deeper and richer relationship with God. God is by definition vast, immense, huge, without boundaries of either time or extent. So there is really no way to be outside of, away from, or distant from God. But at times we may not recognize or feel how close God is. That does not mean He isn’t close. Acts 17:27 tells us that God “is actually not far from each one of us.”

So we can think of the continuing spiritual pilgrimage of believers as an exploration quest. We are engaged in poking around, sounding out, mapping, discovering for ourselves (and others, maybe) all the heights, the depths, the north-east-south-and-west of the unending beautiful landscape we call God. It’s as if we have the freedom to explore an entire continent on foot; we can never exhaust the possibilities.

That is the spiritual life I write about. That is the function of the various spiritual disciplines I want to explore. Benner is quite right that this pilgrim life is neither accomplishment nor achievement. It is not something we do or grasp or win. It is a gift we receive. It is who and what we are.

Besides all that, speaking as a long distance hiker, the metaphor strikes me as full of nuggets to mine.