Expanding horizons.

Crispness. A crackling sense of something near, in the offing. The phase of adolescence is characterised by new openings and expanding horizons; the on rush of new opinions, physical urges, and peer group expectations, of reflection and the beginnings of identity. There is a movement from ‘just’ son/daughter to a ‘more self-reliant student, friend, dating partner and religious believer’.

Fusing faith with a new dawn.

This expanding context which now includes peers’ worldviews is more than enough to navigate. So, consistency in faith and keeping to an inherited worldview seems important to the adolescent. Writers on spiritual development note that faith at this stage is one of synthesis and convention. It is about maintaining received and instructed faith (from family and church) in a newly enlarged environment. As in adolescence we too have seasons of maintenance and integration, of being faithful in challenging environments. How is that fusion going? Also adolescence appeals to us to hear the calls to grow and expand. A call to be aware of being stretched into something and of the new vistas that may be opening up inside. Am I asleep or awake to them?