Michael John Cusick > Quotes

“The pursuit of purity is not about the suppression of lust, but about the reorientation of one’s life to a larger goal. —DIETRICH BONHOEFFER”
― Michael John Cusick, Surfing for God: Discovering the Divine Desire Beneath Sexual Struggle

“Though this list is not exhaustive, it offers a straightforward way for you to begin to put words to what lies below the surface of your life: • Attention—I long for people to like me. I long for your embrace. • Affection—I long to be enjoyed. I long to be delighted in. I long for you to take pleasure in who I am. • Affirmation—I long to know I have what it takes. I long for your blessing. • Acceptance—I long to belong. I long to be desired. • Satisfaction—I long for fullness. I long for well-being. • Significance—I long for impact. I long for meaning. I long to be powerful. • Security—I long to know I will be okay.”
― Michael John Cusick, Surfing for God: Discovering the Divine Desire Beneath Sexual Struggle

“Consider for a moment that the most shameful, regretful, horrible things you've ever done in your life are not so easily labeled "sin." What if instead of viewing yourself as fundamentally sinful, you recognized your longings and needs (those Four Ss again) as good and holy and your failures, weaknesses, mistakes, and yes, even addictions as attempts to meet those needs based on how they have gone unmet in your life? As Aquinas said, every unhealthy behavior reflects a God-given appetite-an idea which took me years to understand.”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“An idol,” wrote Tim Keller, “is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give you.”
― Michael John Cusick, Surfing for God: Discovering the Divine Desire Beneath Sexual Struggle

“Kintsugi makers do not hide the fractures or the past; they mend it to make it new. This is holiness. Holiness hides nothing. Discards nothing. Holiness is the energy of God making all things whole. Or wholly new.”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“If we are ever going to learn to freely delight in God, we must first learn to be delighted in.”
― Michael John Cusick, Surfing for God: Discovering the Divine Desire Beneath Sexual Struggle

“¿Qué palabras pondrías en la burbuja? Ponle voz a la turbulencia y la agitación. ¿Qué podría estar diciéndote tu alma si la escuchas?”
― Michael John Cusick, El sexo, mis deseos y mi Dios: Cómo descubir el deseo divino debajo de la lucha sexual

“It's much easier to cultivate anger and justification than grief and lament. If we're willing to seek healing for our wounds rather than resigning ourselves to them, and if we're willing to steward our vulnerabil- ities into connection with others instead of self-sufficiency, we will be on our way to experiencing wholeness.”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“guilt says, “I have done wrong,” shame says, “I am wrong.”
― Michael John Cusick, Surfing for God: Discovering the Divine Desire Beneath Sexual Struggle

“Addictions are strategies we use to keep the truth from ourselves by blinding us from seeing what’s true about us.”
― Michael John Cusick, Surfing for God: Discovering the Divine Desire Beneath Sexual Struggle

“So rather than suppressing, hiding, condemning, shaming, and numbing the parts of our stories we don't like or want to include, we discover how they become raw material for a new creation. This is the Jesus way.”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“If you've not been seen, soothed, safe, and secure growing up, then you will find it very difficult or it will seem impossible to know God and experience God as one who could possibly see you, soothe you, and keep you safe and secure.”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“If you want to experience being loved”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“His words reminded me of George Carlin’s famous line: “Just ’cause you got the monkey off your back doesn’t mean the circus has left town.”
― Michael John Cusick, Surfing for God: Discovering the Divine Desire Beneath Sexual Struggle

“The deepest desire of your heart is to be known-seen, soothed safe, and secure. So when you deny yourself your weakness, you deny yourself of being human. When you hold back your vulnerability, you hold back being known for who you really are. You may succeed at being known, wanted, and loved for what you can do and whom you please. But you won't be satisfied because you lack the unconditional, limitless, "of course, of course" kind of love for which you were designed.”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“For many of us, our childhood home was a place of pain and loss and even trauma and unpredictability. A place you wanted to leave and never return. A place from which to escape. As a result, we separate from the deep longing for a good home, a safe shelter for our souls, a place of warmth, acceptance, and comfort. Consequently, we avoid dependency in connection. We cut off the need for others”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“Holiness unites you with God. Wholeness invites you to surrender the shards and broken pieces of your life. Together, they dare you to discover that you are better broken.”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“If you truly want to close the gap between what you believe and what you experience, then your body is your crucial companion. Why? Because it's the body-your nervous system shaped by a lifetime of experience-that cannot trust love.”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“But we cannot escape the fact that in the midst of painful emotions, major decisions, and unthinkable circumstances, even Jesus needed to make space for”
― Michael John Cusick, Surfing for God: Discovering the Divine Desire Beneath Sexual Struggle

“If you want to identify what your core beliefs are, just look at your brokenness. What are your wounds and weaknesses? They”
― Michael John Cusick, Surfing for God: Discovering the Divine Desire Beneath Sexual Struggle

“Evil always seeks to destroy beauty and goodness with two lies—by deceiving us about who God is and who we are. Wickedness yields to temptation in order to experience what it lacks—assuming God can’t or won’t provide what feels necessary to live.”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“Evil is sustained by two essential lies. One is about God: you can't trust God to meet your needs. And the other lie is about who you are: it's up to you to meet your own needs so you must find a way”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“Many of us know where we are, and we think we know what our desired outcome is. But we don't know how to get there. And we wonder if it's even possible.”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“Evil fills the gap between our woundedness-all that has hurt us, disappointed us, been lost to us, injured us, abandoned us-and our wandering (sometimes referred to as sin), that longing to settle for fantasy rather than suffer for reality.”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“Will we allow doubts and distrust to take root and flourish? Or will we move into greater wholeness by learning to trust, by inviting God and other people into the wilderness where we find ourselves far from home?”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“You cannot earn”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“Please listen carefully. The way we relate to our environment, events, and other people often results more from our past conditioning than our present choosing. Our early development and family of origin profoundly affected our nervous system, which determined whether we would have a secure attachment. And that wiring is the basis for trust, including trusting in divine love.”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“Learning to experience the transformative power of love requires being known. In order to be known, you must learn to overcome the weight of your shame. Shame and hiddenness create distance from the love we long for and cripple us from being who we truly are. It's been that way from the beginning of humankind, and no technology, medical breakthrough, neurological discovery, or psychopharmaceutical can change this reality. We're intrinsically designed to need relationship, connection, and intimacy with other human beings.”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“When our eyes are open which usually happens only when we're spinning and disoriented-we begin to see the rhythm of the kingdom on every page in Scripture.”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“We all want to be known and valued, but if we can minimize the risk of rejection or come up with a way to explain away others' indifference, then we hedge our bets. Because when we reveal ourselves and are not seen, valued, and known, the wound to our soul gushes with shame.”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love