DOING IT WRONG TO GET IT RIGHT

 ....you do not have to go to the desert, you do have to go through the desert…. The desert is a necessary stage on the spiritual journey. To avoid it would be harmful. * * *   Ironically, you do not have to find the desert in your life; it normally catches up with you. Everyone does go through the desert…. -- author John Chryssavgis

That pretty much nails the flash that God's good comes to us looking like our not good...which was probably the genesis of accepting that the prayer "thank You" is sufficient for all life's needs.

The necessary mistake is when we try to make an end run around God. When we pretend that the pile of poop before us is really nuggets of gold that we can admire and walk on by...avoid, in a word. 

But this can't-be-true hook is true, is God's will, is necessary, is God's way, and is pointing us in the right direction...away from self toward God.   

As Chryssavgis wrote, The desert is a necessary stage on the spiritual journey. 

Short version: We don't lose self-will just by begging God to take it. We have a lot of self-will to stumble, crawl and cry through, make amends for, ask forgiveness for, accept forgiveness for before we crash and burn...if we're doing it right. 

Face it, the egoic mind cannot, will never, accept that as better than the egoic mind's way, and only God can overcome that.

We don't get to God by doing it right, we get to God by doing it wrong. -- Fr Richard Rohr

Thank you.