There are stages we find ourselves experiencing along our way to God. Mystery, a sense of new beginning, crossroad experiences, suffering, and transcendence are stages that challenge us time and again as we search for a closer relationship with the one we seek. Our pilgrimage is not linear but more of a spiral toward God. Michael Braswell is Professor Emeritus at East Tennessee State University. His previous books include Interview with Joab, God's Scoundrels and Misfits with Clemens Bartollas, An Unholy Alliance: The Sacred and Modern Sport with Robert J. Higgs, and Morality Stories with Joycelyn Pollock and Scott Braswell.