Like all legitimate spiritual revelations, I was first introduced to this term while swiping between a text conversation and memes about furry animals.

My friends and I toss just about anything into our texts, everything from the mundane to the interpersonal.

One friend asked if I had ever heard of something called “spiritual bypassing.”

I said, no, even though the term itself felt like it was on fire in my belly.

I didn’t know it properly, but my body recognized it instantly.

She pointed me toward some Instagram posts, and I began to read about spiritual bypassing wherever I could explore it—mainly in the context of New Age spirituality.

No matter how much I searched, I couldn’t find spiritual bypassing presented in the context of Christianity—the theology I was raised in. I asked my group of friends in Exvangelical if they had heard of the term, and the majority of people said, “No, but I know I’ve experienced it.”