Spiritual safety creates space for transformation. Explore the chrysalis metaphor, seasons of faith, and how to protect your unfolding wings.
Spiritual Safety: Finding Rest in Your Season Before Growth
I want to begin with honesty: I am an ordained as a minister, but I am not here to evangelize or convince you to adopt a particular faith. My reflections come through a Biblical lens, but this post is not about pushing a set of beliefs. It is about something far more universal: the safety we need in order to grow spiritually.
For many, spirituality has been life-giving. For others, it has been deeply wounding. I’ve experienced both. I’ve known belonging and beauty within church communities, and I’ve also known the harm of judgment and exclusion. These experiences shape how I write about spiritual safety.
The Chrysalis: Transformation Requires Safety
In When the Heart Waits, Sue Monk Kidd uses the metaphor of a chrysalis — the hidden, protective space where a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. We often think of butterflies in spring, but the chrysalis can also speak to autumn. As nights grow longer and darkness deepens, hidden growth is still at work.
Transformation is growth — but growth requires safety. The chrysalis offers shelter so the transformation can take place in its own time.
Seasons of Growth: A Continuous Cycle
My word for this year is Season. What I’ve discovered is that spirituality, like nature, is not a straight line but a continuous cycle. There are seasons of flourishing and seasons of rest, seasons of questioning and seasons of clarity.
Spiritual safety means allowing yourself to be in the season you’re in without shame, guilt, or pressure to hurry on to the next. Just as winter makes way for spring, every season in the spiritual life has meaning and purpose.
The Safety of Unfolding Wings
Kidd also writes about the risk of emerging with “new wings.” Transformation can unsettle those around us:
- Some may prefer the old version of you.
- Some may resist, ignore, or even react with hostility.
- A few will celebrate your new wings with joy.
Spiritual safety means protecting your inner process from voices that would clip your wings before they fully unfold. Growth often challenges the status quo, and not everyone will understand. That is okay.
Creating Spiritual Safety in Your Life
How can you create that safe chrysalis for your own spiritual growth? Here are a few gentle invitations:
- Protect your quiet spaces. Solitude, prayer, journaling, meditation, or silence all create room for transformation.
- Choose carefully who you share with. Not everyone can hold your unfolding with care. Share where you feel supported.
- Honor your current season. Growth is lifelong and cyclical. Safety allows you to be patient and present where you are.
Closing Reflection
Transformation is growth — but growth requires safety. Just as a butterfly cannot emerge without the shelter of the chrysalis, our spiritual wings unfold when we create space for rest, reflection, and peace.
What season are you in right now? And how can you create the safety your spirit needs in it?
-Laura