HIDING IN THE EXPLANATION, II

[The following is a reworked version of my post of  December 21, 2012.]

Too often when those of us who practice self-examination learn the root cause of our misery, we stay there. We see when mother/father/sister/brother did X, we hid from the pain in fear...lying/cheating/becoming an over- or under-achiever. All of which helped us feel in control, protected in a word.

Having found an acceptable reason for our behavior, we hunker down with it. We admit freely the cause of our defect of character...thinking the admission means we're free of it or, equally comforting, that we can't be blamed for it. 

No...what it means is that we are hiding in the explanation.

If we are ever to be free in our own self, we begin to understand the true meaning of letting go, of being humbled enough to "sit and wait on the Lord." It has been written that in seeing the defect of character, our work is done and God's has begun...which the egoic mind will ever resist. 

The particularly difficult part comes when we can consciously thank God for doing whatever God knows to be best, leave it with God, then seek to help another. The difficulty, of course, is that we must take our mind off our own self. Ah, there it is, the nature of spiritual growth...to see our need transformed into care and concern for the need of another. 

When that turns from being our cross to bear to being our gift of glory, we know love. It's a long haul...getting over one self always is until we accept that our work is done, that God's has begun.

Thank you.