Spiritual
Detoxification
“Spiritual
progress is like a detoxification. Things have to come up in order to
be released. Once we have asked to be healed, then our unhealed
places are forced to the surface. A relationship that is used by the
Holy Spirit becomes a place where our blocks to love are not
suppressed or denied, but rather brought into conscious awareness.”
Marianne
Williamson (A Return To Love)
Step
4 of the Twelve-Step programs requires one to make a “searching and
fearless moral inventory” of oneself. Step 5: Admitted to God,
ourselves and another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Step 6: Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of
character. Part of the process of getting clean and sober, is turning
one's attention back to where it belongs, on one's own nature and
ways of relating in the world. It's a painful process for an
alcoholic/addict, as it would be for any of us.
Real
relationships between human beings rely on honesty. To be honest, one
must know oneself first and best, and that requires plumbing the
depths of the motives that activate our own behavior. If we let them,
relationships will bring all our ulterior and unconscious motives
right up to the surface, and shine a bright light on them. And that's
a good thing—albeit difficult, and sometimes even painful. All of
us want our significant pairings to be genuine and nurturing. We want
the other person to know us very well, and love us anyway. That
requires a naked honesty that feels (and is) uncommonly vulnerable
and risky. But it is this unwrapped clarity that allows us to bond at
all.
Spiritual
detoxification is the means by which we strip away pretense, egotism,
fear of unworthiness, and any other defects of character that stand
between us and the spark of God within us. We are then ready for
whatever comes—in our relationships and in our lives. That is the
definition of security.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
No comments:
Post a Comment