When God Meets Us at the Wall
“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” -- 2 Corinthians 3:17
In his book Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, author and pastor Peter Scazzero uses “the Wall” to describe a season when our familiar ways of understanding God and ourselves no longer seem sufficient. A loss, disappointment, betrayal, illness, unanswered prayer, vocational disruption, or other crisis may bring us to a place where the way forward seems impossible.
Scazzero argues that such experiences are a normal part of spiritual growth. The Wall interrupts our momentum because God is doing deeper work within us. We may arrive hoping God will quickly change our circumstances, while God begins by transforming our character.
The Christian life unfolds as a journey rather than a straight line, writes Scazzero. There are seasons of beginning, learning, serving, questioning, waiting, and returning to the world with a deeper capacity to love. Along the way, nearly everyone eventually encounters a Wall. The details differ from person to person, but the experience often includes a loss of control and the unsettling realization that our familiar answers can carry us only so far.
Our first instinct may be to retreat. We fill our schedules, work harder, blame someone else, move on too quickly, or try to recreate an earlier season when faith felt simpler. But avoiding the Wall can leave us circling the same spiritual ground. Scazzero suggests that the way forward is typically through the very place we would prefer to escape.
At the Wall, we begin loosening our grip on control. The identities we have built around success, approval, productivity, certainty, or usefulness begin to feel less secure. We learn that faith does not depend on understanding what God is doing or receiving the outcome we hoped for.
Waiting becomes part of the spiritual work. We learn to remain present with God when answers are delayed. Faith grows quieter, deeper, and more rooted in the character of God.
Over time, the Wall can produce greater humility and patience. We become more comfortable with mystery and less driven to manage every outcome. We begin to love others without trying to control them, serve without needing to prove ourselves, and rest without believing that everything depends upon us.
“The critical issue on the journey with God is not, ‘Am I happy?’ but ‘Am I free?’" Scazzzero writes. "Am I growing in the freedom God gave me?”
This week, pay attention to the places where you feel stalled, disappointed, or unable to control the outcome. Rather than rushing to escape, bring this question to God: What are you freeing me from, and what are you freeing me for?