Status Updates From The Gift of Being Yourself:...

“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

“Our unique calling will be based on our gifts and abilities, will grow out of our deepest desires, and will always involve some response to the needs of the world.”

Okay, I actually do like the comparison of God looking for Adam and Eve in the Garden as a parable for our own self-reclamation. “Where are you? Why are you hiding?”

So… differentiation? And ugh, classical millennial who hates the phrase “Respect is earned.”

Okay, see, this is what I don’t understand! Having feelings of irritation and annoyance are signs of a false self? So… a “true” self never feels annoyed or irritated, is that what we are to understand? I am sick of the idea of “feelings” being put into groups of good and evil feelings. I’m allowed to be annoyed, and I’m allowed to choose how I respond to that feeling. Lord help us.

And now I’m “prickly.” Well, this false self does not appreciate the sort of God you know. He sounds awful.

NO, no, no, no, no. “God wants us to be aware of our helplessness so we can know that we need Divine help.” I was hoping that quote from before was just a stand-alone.

Hard eye-roll.

Are attachments really so evil? What is the difference between attachments and love? Because I’m assuming grief comes once they are gone regardless of how they’re frame-worked.

Oh cool, prosperity gospel. My favorite.

Well, this reminds me why Mormonism isn’t considered Christianity. The Adam and Eve story has a very different connotation in Mormonism. And apparently I am just the worst kind of heathen, thinking humans are more akin to God than we often give ourselves credit for, but just within the scope of our own personal universe.

Wow. What a way to relate to the enneagram. Also, Christianity is SO confusing to me.

What in the fuck? “Discovering our core sin tendencies is helpful because [it] will inevitably fill us with such despair and hopelessness that we will have no option but to turn to God.” God’s agenda is a bit fucked up here, though to be fair, I highly value agency and this is definitely non-agentic.

Ugh, dislike this chapter. Hate the word “sin” in this context. Honestly, just hate the black and white context of Christian thinking in general. Maybe this book is a farce to convince himself he’s more holy than he seems? Though, honestly, his list of personal “sins” are things I hardly find problematic.

Wouldn’t the “default” option of being self-deceiving make our self-deception arise out of our real selves then? What a ridiculously paradoxical explanation.

This last chapter just sounded like IFS therapy, but using “God” as your main “self,” meeting the other parts with acceptance, compassion, and love.