Chapter 8: The False Self
As soon as I saw the title of this chapter, I said inside myself, "Oh, oh. I’ve been set up." Early in my Christian experience I had a bad experience being "discipled" by a man who taught an extreme version of "dying to self" while also having a place of unhealthy "authority" in my life. This combination resulted in my being spiritually abused. I came to understand that I was bad and God didn’t like me, because of how selfish I was. Thirty years later, I still struggle to comprehend just what it is that God loves about me. So I come to this chapter with a lot of baggage.
The point of the chapter is that we all start out with a lot of basic selfishness because of unmet needs and the desire to be loved and accepted by those around us. Because these needs and desires are unmet, we develop sinful survival strategies to meet these needs. We attempt to control our fate. While God intends for us to have our basic needs met, he doesn’t want us to get there through our own sinful strategies. All of this is why we need to exercise the spiritual disciplines.
As we exercise the discipline of centering prayer, the mysterious communion between God and my spirit begins to reveal ever so gently the ways that we give in to our "false self" instead of being directed from our "true self." The true self lies at the core of our being. It is the pure child of God that was created to serve him. Over the top of this core are layers of falseness that need to be sorted through by God’s spirit in order for our true nature to be revealed. As we yield to God in centering prayer, he "turns the lights on" to various parts of our soul he is ready for us to see from his perspective. Now, empowered by his love, grace, mercy, and courage, we begin to surrender our old sinful patterns to him. It is only then that we can learn to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with him.
I can think of no gentler, more respectful, or more peaceful way that this can be accomplished than by centering prayer. As I submit willingly to God’s action through centering prayer, tiny little miracles are happening. I am discovering who I really am, why I’m really here, and how I’m really supposed to be living. I’ve heard it said that that there are only two ways for God to accomplish this metamorphosis of our soul: 1) centering prayer and 2) suffering.
Hmmm. Somehow it seems I’m back to "Easy way, hard way" again. I think I’ll pick door number one.
The point of the chapter is that we all start out with a lot of basic selfishness because of unmet needs and the desire to be loved and accepted by those around us. Because these needs and desires are unmet, we develop sinful survival strategies to meet these needs. We attempt to control our fate. While God intends for us to have our basic needs met, he doesn’t want us to get there through our own sinful strategies. All of this is why we need to exercise the spiritual disciplines.
As we exercise the discipline of centering prayer, the mysterious communion between God and my spirit begins to reveal ever so gently the ways that we give in to our "false self" instead of being directed from our "true self." The true self lies at the core of our being. It is the pure child of God that was created to serve him. Over the top of this core are layers of falseness that need to be sorted through by God’s spirit in order for our true nature to be revealed. As we yield to God in centering prayer, he "turns the lights on" to various parts of our soul he is ready for us to see from his perspective. Now, empowered by his love, grace, mercy, and courage, we begin to surrender our old sinful patterns to him. It is only then that we can learn to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with him.
I can think of no gentler, more respectful, or more peaceful way that this can be accomplished than by centering prayer. As I submit willingly to God’s action through centering prayer, tiny little miracles are happening. I am discovering who I really am, why I’m really here, and how I’m really supposed to be living. I’ve heard it said that that there are only two ways for God to accomplish this metamorphosis of our soul: 1) centering prayer and 2) suffering.
Hmmm. Somehow it seems I’m back to "Easy way, hard way" again. I think I’ll pick door number one.
posted by Ted at 5:46 AM
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