Early in our lives and early on our spiritual journey, we look for external sources of validation. We say, I belong to this denomination and work at this company and live in this neighborhood. If our “this” is something valued by others, we feel we have attained legitimacy or that we have arrived. If we find our value in “this” we are one excommunication, termination, or foreclosure away from no longer having arrived – but has anything about “us” really changed? Are we not really the same people? Maturity involves growing into internal sources of validation that do not fade and cannot be taken away.