without a shadow of a doubt i know the lord is with me always

I love you if you produce much, sell much, and buy much.' There are endless 'ifs' hidden in the world's love. I love you if you have a good education, a good job, and good connections. All the time and energy I spend in keeping some kind of balance and preventing myself from being tipped over and drowning shows that my life is mostly a struggle for survival: not a holy struggle, but an anxious struggle resulting from the mistaken idea that it is the world that defines me.Īs long as I keep running about asking: 'Do you love me? Do you really love me?' I give all power to the voices of the world and put myself in bondage because the world is filled with 'ifs.' The world says: 'Yes, I love you if you are good-looking, intelligent, and wealthy. Often I am like a small boat on the ocean, completely at the mercy of its waves. It takes very little to raise me up or thrust me down. A little praise raises my spirits, and a little success excites me. A little criticism makes me angry, and a little rejection makes me depressed. “At issue here is the question: 'To whom do I belong? God or to the world?' Many of my daily preoccupations suggest that I belong more to the world than to God. Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the 'Beloved.' Being the Beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence.” I deserve to be pushed aside, forgotten, rejected, and abandoned. As soon as someone accuses me or criticizes me, as soon as I am rejected, left alone, or abandoned, I find myself thinking, 'Well, that proves once again that I am a nobody.'. The real trap, however, is self-rejection.

When we have come to believe in the voices that call us worthless and unlovable, then success, popularity, and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions. Success, popularity, and power can indeed present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from the way they are part of the much larger temptation to self-rejection.

“Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection.

Without a shadow of a doubt i know the lord is with me always