The Christian Lifecycle

Today, I want to talk about life after knowing Jesus. All of us at this point in time have known Christ for a while now - maybe some of us were born into a Christian family or some might have grown at church all our childhood. Or maybe like me, some of us may have come to accept Christ in our hearts at a later time in college. (Time to share our own personal experiences when we first encountered Jesus). However shape or form, I believe that we all fall into this phenomenon that I call the “Christian lifecycle” - a cycle where we go through phases in our walk with God at different times of our life. Think about the economic cycle for a second:

 

In the New Testament, we will find a group of people who have gone through each of these stages in their life in a period much shorter than any of us combined may have experienced. Jesus’ twelve disciples. Among the six stages of Christian Lifecycle that we’ve just gone over, I want to talk about Trough stage as this is what most of us have collectively experienced in our recent past.

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What will you do when the person or place that you found refuge in was gone?

 
After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.”
— John 21:1-3

I would believe that most of us are very familiar with what happened to Jesus in span of a few weeks in the Gospel of John - starting from His betrayal and arrest (Chapter 18); His crucifixion, death, and burial (Chapter 19); and His resurrection (Chapter 20). These events have been wildly known and have been the foundation of the Christian faith. While they are of most importance for our understanding, I believe that the next and last chapter of John (Chapter 21) is one of the most beautiful picture of Jesus’ commitment to us as believers.

Even when after the resurrected Jesus revealed Himself many times to the disciples, they have fallen into the period of depression and trough which is normal for anyone who has lost someone very important in his/her life. Here we see Simon Peter, the leader of the group, deciding to do something he once considered as the main source of his livelihood - fishing. Although this may seem as normal thing for him to do, remember that he walked and ministered with Jesus for three years ever since he decided to follow Jesus. This is one of the signs of someone being in a trough stage in life.

When we are afraid and hopeless, we tend to circle back to the beginning - the beginning where we were before everything happened. We go back to that point in time when our hearts were innocent before it got broken. We go back to the time when we didn’t know that how love could hurt this much. We retreat to what was once comfortable because we’ve tasted how it’s like to have our spirit crushed and our hopes crumpled into pieces.

A state of dysphoria. A crippling state of dysphoria.

This was exactly what happened to the disciples after Jesus died. And this was exactly what happened to us when Pastor Joey passed and the JRL Youth was restructured. It was a dark time, a time full of confusion and unsettling anticipation for what’s next. A fall-out.

They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish.
— John 21:3-6
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And how many times do we miss God in the process?

When we are at our lowest point, we sometimes have the difficulty of recognizing Jesus in our situation. We are so caught up with what we’re doing and how we can fix our misery when in fact, Jesus is standing in close proximity trying to catch out attention. More often than not, we miss God in the process by our own doing. Worse, we also blame Him for being distant or absent in our situations.

But despite it all, Jesus always proves His faithfulness to His disciples and to us. He always shows up, because He is always there. When we go through different phases and seasons in our life, God is the only constant thing that is holding us together. He is the straight line in the graph which touches every point in our life.

He is ever present and ever involved, even when we don’t see Him. When the person or place that we once found as our safe place is gone, God is our refuge. Psalms 46:1 says, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

Christian Lifecycle

1. Expansion or Boom: a period of expansion characterized by fast growth. In our life, this could be the point where we feel like we are at the top of a mountain. Everything is going well. Dreams are being realized and we are in a state of comfort and peace. The common downfall in this phase is that it is inflationary and unsustainable. Sometimes at this stage we find ourselves wanting for more than we’ve already accomplish. There is a tendency to raise our standard of living rather than our standard of giving. We may become too confident with our achievements or we may be discontented with where we have landed. This is not a sustainable phase as new desires or intent can emerge which may cause us to wander away from God as He could no longer satisfy us based on our position in life.

2. Peak: a period which follows an expansion. In our life, this is the point that we all wanted to reach - the maximum growth and self-actualization. However, it could also be the point that none of us may achieve in this lifetime alone. The common pitfall in this phase are lose of purpose or fear of disappointment. This stage is so high that we could not make a wrong step; otherwise, we will fall so hard. As there is no further signs of growth, this could be the time when we question ourselves why we are still on earth and if we are really living at our best capacity.

3. Recession: a period which follows a peak. This is when everything starts to cool off and slow down. This is the time where we contemplate our life, reengineer our habits, and attempt on improving our goals. This is one of the crucial phases as this one can make or break our faith. If we overcome this stage with faith and hope, we are likely to come back in the expansion stage. But if we are overcome by fear, disappointment, jealousy, or loss of apparent meaning in life, we are likely to fall into the pit of depression.

4. Depression: a negative period following a recession. This is when our hope continually declines and our troubles appear to have no end in sight. This is a dark time as we are consciously feeling the drop - our hearts and flesh have the hardest time cooperating with the Holy Spirit and our joy and optimism have seemed to be running loose from our grip. This is also the period that most of us are very much familiar with, to a point that we give this phase too much credit in our lows in life. However, I believe this is not the stage that most lonely, sad, and heartbroken people are at.

5. Trough: a lowest period resulted from depression. This is when some people have flatlined. Hope, joy, peace along with all the other fruits of the Spirit walked out the door. The idea of God started to become absurd, thus the church too. This is when we feel the farthest away from God or when we revert back to the old sins and lifestyle that Jesus saved us from. No matter how dark this time is in our life, most of tend or choose to stay in this situation for a time longer than we should or God has willed us to.

6. Recovery: a period of breakthrough. This is when we pick ourselves back up again and our mustard-seed faith starts to cultivate. This is also when we feel God’s redeeming grace as tangibly as possible and our hope takes off like a plane that awaited for long extended delays. Furthermore, this is when we choose Jesus and we choose to be right with Him. As we continually progress and embrace our breakthrough, another cycle will start leading us back to the expansion phase.

Unknowingly, sometimes we think that we are in the depression stage. But I believe it is only one of our excuses to enjoy a long-standing relationship with grief and hopeless when we know we shouldn’t. Somehow, some way, we find refuge in embracing our season of pain. While this could be a helpful recovery mechanism, it could also be dangerous if done unhealthily and in a prolonged amount of time. According to 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, as Christians we need to “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit.”

We are to counterattack our suffering with joy, prayer, and gratitude knowing that Jesus did not destine us for suffering alone. We need to realize that life is a constant process of becoming and overcoming; time continues to click and more often than not, the very thing or person that caused us pain has already moved forward. We are left behind due to our own doing. At some point we need to convince ourselves that we are no longer depressed. We may still be in our lowest point (trough stage), but we know that God is about to launch us into a new season of recovery and breakthrough.

When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught. So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.
— ‭‭John‬ ‭21:9-14‬

The closer we draw ourselves to God, the clearer we see and recognize Him.

  1. It is Jesus who invites us in to His presence. Don’t fight it.

  2. Similarly as the disciples have gone fishing, sometimes we also go out to the world for comfort, happiness, and satisfaction. Honestly, we don’t do ourselves any good by doing this. We will not find elsewhere what only God has prepared to fill our hearts. Would it be possible that the reason why we don’t get what we want in our own is because Jesus has already have it prepared for us?

  3. At times of confusion and despair, we are to fellowship with God and with one another. The disciples still stuck together, at least seven of them, even if most of us seem to go in a different direction in life.

And this is the commitment I think the Lord Jesus left us with. God calls us into deeper relationship with Him and with one another. We are the very gift that God has blessed us with — a gift of fellowship and brotherhood to help us weather any storm or any test that come our way.


Next week, we will talk about the points wherein intersection takes place - which I would call “Selah”. These are some stops and bumps in our lives at which I believe when have touch points with God.


PRAYER

Kimberly Chiong