Heidi Robichaud-roy

“One of the breakthrough insights of famed Swiss psychologist Carl Jung was his definition of psychological health. To paraphrase, Jung observed that everyone—every last one of us—has a gap between our perceived self and our actual self. There’s a gap between my perception of myself (who I think I am, how I think I come across, how I think others see me), and reality (who I really am, how I really come across, and how others actually see me). Psychological health, according to Jung, is narrowing the gap between my perceived self and my actual self as much as possible.2 That’s true for me. And it’s true for you. Kinda scary, huh? Of course, this gap between perceived and actual self is much easier to see in others. We are all painfully aware of the varying degrees of self-delusion our coworkers, friends, and family members carry within them. But even though that same delusion is present within us, we find it difficult to see. I’d argue spiritual health is a lot like that. Spiritual health is closing the gap between biblical rumor and actual life as narrowly as possible. Spiritual maturity is narrowing the gap between Kingdom promise and daily grind; between what I believe in my head and what I know in my heart, my emotions, and my bones; between the core beliefs I recite in creeds and sing in worship anthems and the core beliefs I live day in and day out. Spiritual health means that inevitable gap between the story on the page and the story of my life narrows and narrows like a door creaking shut on a dark room until there’s barely a blade of light left. The Holy Spirit is the experiential agent of the Trinitarian God, narrowing the gap between biblical promise and everyday experience and leading to greater spiritual health and maturity. Quiet crisis, loud crisis, or a combination of the two—everyone who attempts to follow Jesus without a deep, rich understanding of and relationship with the indwelling person, presence, and power of the Holy Spirit will one day be confronted by the gap—maybe the troublingly wide gap—between biblical rumor and actual life.”
― Tyler Staton, The Familiar Stranger: (Re)Introducing the Holy Spirit to Those in Search of an Experiential Spirituality

“Christians are hard to tolerate; I don’t know how Jesus does it”
― Bono

“The Word we study has to be the Word we pray. My personal experience of the relentless tenderness of God came not from exegetes, theologians, and spiritual writers, but from sitting still in the presence of the living Word and beseeching Him to help me understand with my head and heart His written Word. Sheer scholarship alone cannot reveal to us the gospel of grace. We must never allow the authority of books, institutions, or leaders to replace the authority of *knowing* Jesus Christ personally and directly. When the religious views of others interpose between us and the primary experience of Jesus as the Christ, we become unconvicted and unpersuasive travel agents handing out brochures to places we have never visited.”
― Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel