Reflections for 5/9/10

"If there's one thing that human beings are attached to, it's their self-image, whether it's positive or negative. We need a self-image; there's nothing wrong with that. The spiritual problem is our attachment to it!...Those are the things that determine most people's lives . And most of us have to say, Am I free to be something other than that? Much of spiritual direction is aimed at helping people detach from false self-image. Amazingly, we are just as attached to negative and destructive self-images as we are to positive, flattering ones. In order for the Great Lover to be able to get at us, we must let go of our secret attachment to our self -image. It limits what we pay attention to, what we ignore, what kind of God-lover we will accept or avoid. We probably have to have a self-image, but just don't take it too seriously."(R. Rohr "Radical Grace" p. 180)

I wish I could say that I have a positive self-image all the time, but most people who know me will say that I often am self-deprecating, maybe beyond any reality.

Of course trumpeting one's self-image either by singing How Great I am, or by putting one's self down, the emphasis is still on me. And what that becomes is borderline idolatry. Very few people are as wonderful or miserable as they present themselves to be. We are all blessed with strengths and weaknesses. And the whole person warts and all is what truly matters.

Yet if we promote only the one side we head into a fantasy world. One that generally isn't all that wonderful.

I could do a little more acknowledging of what I do well, without getting to full of myself, and a little less of the self-deprecating without losing sight of those areas of needed growth.

Blessings,
Ed