I believe that there are three important steps in spiritual maturity. In all probability we go through these steps more than once. The first time through, it is especially important that we make it all the way to re-orientation. One author used these three words---orientation, dis-orientation, and re-orientation---to describe the different kinds of Psalms. (Psalms, Walter Brueggeman.) They can be divided into these three phases. However, I have noticed that an application can be made to the whole biblical story. I want now to make that application and show its importance to all of us.

We most often hear this word when we are beginning something new. Usually the first day on a new job, or the first day at a new university, or any effort to accomplish even a short-time task, will be spent on orientation. We understand the meaning. It simply means to focus on the task at hand, an introduction to what lies ahead, and positioning oneself in the right direction.

Life or world-view. Concerning Christianity and life itself, this is the orientation of all orientations! This one is the most important of all. If we are not properly oriented, we will begin all wrong and will not succeed in life. The Bible begins with this very thing---the right world view. "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth." (Gen. 1:1.) We have important choices to make in life. These choices combined make up our view of our lives and the world. The Bible presents a consistent picture of life. It claims to be a revelation from God who created the world and all things therein. To reject this overall view is to orient oneself in another direction away from God. We must be sure about this first step, about this orientation of our lives. All else follows what we decide at this point. Seeing the world as created affects all else that exists in life. Psalm 19 is a psalm of orientation. Verses 1-6 speak about the voice of creation; verses 7-14 portray the role of the Word of God.

"The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard." (vs. 1-3.) "The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple." (vs. 7.)

Time. The three views of time are included in this orientation: eternal; cyclical; or linear from time to eternity. Christians believe that time is measured on earth; eternity refers to life beyond this world. Time moves on from creation to the end of this world. God is at the center of human history. Its meaning comes from God’s scheme of redemption. It is divine, redemptive history.

Man’s nature. Early in Scripture, the Bible gives a specific view of man. He is created in the image of God.

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. . So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." (Gen. 1:26-27.)

Man finds his completion only in understanding that spiritual nature of man. Man is complete only in God. In like manner, man and woman finds their oneness together as man and wife. The two become one flesh. This is an important part of man’s orientation.

"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh." (Gen. 2:24.)

Man is created to maintain these important relationships---with God and his mate in life. Relationships are a key to man’s existence and happiness. Redemption is found in having a right relationship with the Lord.

Right and wrong. It is during this orientation period that we receive basic concepts of justice. The biblical view is that immorality will be judged. The blessed man will prosper. Note the first psalm.

"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish."

One of the foremost and basic principles of justice is that good will be rewarded of God and evil will be punished. The world is basically good; man has a good moral orientation. After each day of creation, God saw that what he had created was good. We do not accept the view that man is born totally depraved. In the beginning, man was made upright. (Eccl. 7:29.)

We are taught that God hears our prayers and gives good things to those who follow His way. (1 Peter 3:12, Matt. 7:7, James 1:17, Matt. 7:11.)

There are many aspects of this initial orientation to life and toward God. It is essential that the basic elements of this orientation be true and properly reflect the nature of God and man. If not, serious difficulties will lie ahead. Even with a secure and accurate orientation, there will arise occasions of disarray and confusion.

Disorientation, confusion or disarray comes both to the whole world and to each person individually. Soon after Genesis 1 comes the fall of man in chapter three. Here is the confusion that enters because of sin. The confusion enters because God is seen as Almighty and good. How did things go wrong? Is not God sovereign? Who is this tempter of mankind?

Due to the curse upon the man, woman, the serpent, and the earth, the world that we now inhabit is not exactly the same as the one originally created. Genesis 3, the Fall, changed our world greatly.

Personal disorientation occurs in times of crisis, disappointment, pain and loss. David cried, "My God, my God, Why hast thou forsaken me? Why are thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the day time, but thou hearest me not; and in the night season, and am not silent." (Psalm 22:1-2.) "Why standest thou afar off, O Lord? Why hidest thou thyself in time of trouble?" (Psalm 10:1.) "Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand? Pluck it out of thy bosom." (Psalm 74:11.) The Psalms are a complete expression of orientation, disorientation, and re-orientation.

Job well expresses the confusion that results when the basic supports of life are removed. He cries out to be heard from God. He protests the unfairness of his suffering. He contends that he did not do anything that warranted his loss and pain. Job’s friends added to his burdens by accusing him of wrong and urging him to confess his sins. His own wife advised him to curse God and die. Job’s disorientation may represent an extreme state, but many can identify with his confusion in life. Job said, "For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me." (3:25.)

Solomon writes openly about his disorientation of life. He repeats the refrain that life is vain. "Vanity of vanities; all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labor which he taketh under the sun?" (1:2-3.) Some of the most pointed statements are these: "Consider the work of God: for who can make straight that which he (God) hath made crooked?" (Eccl. 7:13.) "Time and chance happens to them all." (Eccl. 9:11.)

Confusion in the churches. One of the places where disorientation is felt most keenly is within the life of local churches. Many obey the Gospel having a simple, child-like faith in God. Their orientation is based upon positive statements about God caring for all men, especially those who obey Him. We are taught that Christians are a peculiar people seeking the will of God in their lives. We expect that life within the body will be encouraging and positive. The lost will be saved by the Gospel and Christians will express a fervent love to one another.

The confusion comes when young Christians discover for the first time that there are difficulties even within the church. People do not always live by faith in God. Christians do not always show maturity and spiritual growth. Sin is found within the body of Christ. One Christian wrongs another. Someone offends another with harsh words. Some live with bitterness, refusing to forgive another. We expected so much. Now we are disoriented. Where is God? Why does he not act within his body the church? The saved look much like the world. There is division among believers. Accusations of teaching false doctrine is hurled at ministers of the Gospel. I am convinced that everyone in the church experiences this uncertainty of disorientation. Elders, deacons, ministers, song leaders, women and men, young and old suffer disappointments in the church.

How we handle these disappointments and periods of confusion is very important. Some members leave the church due to this period of confusion. They do not see how to reconcile these problems with what they learned during orientation. It seems that some quickly leave without asking how others made it through these times of discouragement. If you are just now experiencing these things, you should be aware that everyone has had similar experiences. You need to stay and hang on until you understand. There is another phase that will complete your maturity in Christ as a member of his body on earth.

Many passages in the Bible express this matter of re-orientation. These passages are very distinction from the primary passages of orientation. These statements describe a condition on the other side of confusion.

"My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire wanting nothing." (James 1:2-4.)

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." (Rom. 8:28.) Paul did not say that all things in life were good, but that all things work together for good. This is a statement of re-orientation. The confusion is stated just two verses earlier. "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." (8:26.) The whole creation groans and travails together in pain. (verse 22.)

Saul of Tarsus went through a severe period of reorientation, probably more than most. He was according to his own words, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as touching the Law a Pharisee. (Phil. 3:5.) This legal approach to God and redemption caused a spiritual storm within the soul of Saul. He wrote,

"But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my member. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Rom. 7:23-24.) Then, here is his reorientation: "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. . . There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." (7:25-8:2.)

We must somehow be reconciled to the imperfections that we see in the church. Perhaps, there was no New Testament church that experienced so much disarray as the church at Corinth. Paul reveals why they suffered so much confusion and how they could be re-oriented.

1) They were immature. I cannot write unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. (3:1.) They needed more maturity. This caused them to follow those who had baptized them. (chapter one.) It also caused them to clamor after gifts that drew attention to them. Paul urged them to seek after the more perfect way of love. (chapters 12 & 13.)

2) They had a sinful man in the assembly. Paul told them how to handle the problem and move on. He did not say that they should abandon their faith and dissolve the assembly of Christians. (chapter 5.)

3) In every case of confusion and difficulty named by Paul, he offered teaching and instructions on how to handle it. This is always the solution. It is the role of reorientation. Local church life demands maturity. We must adjust, come back to faithfulness and devotion. We must repent. This is the only proper reorientation when we have done wrong.

All of us started out with a child-like view of God and the world. Growing to maturity as adults, we have made adjustments as needed to those earlier views.

"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understand as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things." (1 Cor. 13:11.)

Are we able to speak, understand, and think as adults in Christ? This is the process of growth to maturity. Without it, we fall away from the faith.