There's a great story about a chronically depressed man who went for help to the psychologist Carl Jung. Jung told the man to cut his fourteen hour workdays back to eight, then go directly home and spend his evenings alone and quiet. SO the man spent every evening behind closed doors, reading the works of Thomas Mann and Herman Hesse and playing Mozart and Chopin on his piano.
After a few weeks the depressed man returned to Jung, described what he'd been doing, and complined at his lack of improvement. Jung responded, "But you didn't understand. I didn't want you to be with Hesse or Mann or Chopin or Mozart. I wanted you to be completely alone."
The man looked horrified: "I can't think of any worse company".
Jung replied, "Yet this is the self you inflict on other people fourteen hours a day".
That kind of self-hatred hangs like a cloud between Christians and the Father of Lights. We are horrified at the thought of a silent retreat. We are so immobilized by self-loathing that we neutralize God's Spirit in us, chocking off the nourishment meant to make us grow and blossom and bear fruit
excerpt taken from:Brennan Manning's, Posers, Fakers & Wannabes (unmasking the real you)
No comments:
Post a Comment