Reflections on the Journey

REFLECTIONS ON THE JOURNEY
An option for the journey of Christian spiritual formation

What is a Crucible?

“A crucible is a container or melting pot for holding the intense heat and pressure that can transform raw materials…into qualitatively different substances.”
~Shults & Sandage from their book Transforming Spirituality

Think of it this way, you are the raw material spoken of above. You are placing yourself in a container – a crucible – each time you use one on this website. When you put yourself in a crucible, the heat is going to be turned up on you. You will be asked to reflect, meditate, journal, experience, etc. a variety of things. As you sit in a particular crucible, the heat gets turned up and by the grace of God, something will begin to change or transform in you. After awhile, that raw material you placed in the crucible will transform into “a qualitatively different substance”.

Some cautionary notes:

The crucible is not what changes you. The “heat” is not what changes you. God is what changes you.
You need to see that you are not changing yourself.
You are just purposefully putting yourself in places to be open to God’s direction.
All of this is a waste of time if you do not follow where God leads in the crucibles.
If the heat in a particular exercise is too hot for you soul right now, stop, come back to it at a later time.
Enter these crucibles with trusted friends, they will help immensely in giving perspective and support.