Finally, remember, in the end what we need is God. Our in-need lives begin and end with God.
I was asked once, what is the goal of the spiritual life and what does that goal have to do with the variety of other things people describe as goals of a spiritual pilgrimage. This is the way I responded:
The two words that have become an ever more important part of my vocabulary and that summarize the goal of the spiritual life as I understand it are the words, theosis and ascent. Found broadly throughout the Christian tradition, the sources that come to mind for the former are:
St. Athanasius of Alexandria: “”The Son of God became man, that we might become god.”
And the second of the Petrine epistles (2 Pe 1:4): we have become “partakers of divine nature.”
The source for the latter image (also widely used in the Christian tradition) is found in the work of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, whose work is described by Richard Foster and Garle Beebe as “the desire for God and the ascent of pure love.”
What I like about both descriptions of the spiritual life is the way in which they assume, if not require “imitating Christ, doing God’s will, loving others, [and] responding to the Spirit.” None of these, it seems to me, are ends in themselves, any more than are other goals identified by other spiritual traditions, including for example, centering, balance, integration, peace, or wisdom.
As a Christian this approach defines the spiritual life in explicitly Christian categories, but it does not exclude the several faces of Christian spiritual practice. They are, instead, steps to the same goal.
We are people in need. Born to share in the life of God, we wait to share more fully in the life of God. We are in-need, but we are not without hope. The One who sent us on this journey waits for us and knows our needs.