Spiritual Shrinkage

A reader at Spirithome.com asked me this question :

>> I hear all this blah blah blah about
>>'spiritual growth'. But is there such a thing as
>> 'spiritual shrinkage'? <<

There are a lot of folks who say 'no', including some of the
wisest spiritual folks around. They say that spiritual
awareness can't disappear, just like a raised consciousness
supposedly can't be lowered. Something of it still lingers,
some things about the person can never be the same.

I can see some degree of truth to that, but not enough.
Growth goes up and down and stops and starts. You may not
notice your growth - though sometimes others do. Spiritual
growth is not a constant. And if it can stop, it can go
backward. Sometimes, people spiritually shrink and warp. What
can cause it? Desperation. Fear. Hurt. Greed. Lust. Anger.
Loss. Powerlust. Their spirit becomes shallower. There's nothing
that can make you shrink. Nothing has the power to
defeat the Spirit's work in you. Anything that can get you to
shrink can be turned around to make you grow. But that's easy
to say, hard to live, because of the power you have over you.

You can make choices that will shrink you. So you can shrink spiritually.