1.7

This Book’s Order (continued)

The last two chapters integrate teachings in psychotherapy with the nature of spiritual birth and growth. Psychotherapy as a healing process brings together the fractured pieces of our mind, emotions and relationships. When our damaged sense of self is increasingly integrated, our consciousness becomes more clear, coherent, comprehensive and accessible for living. Absolute and pure consciousness is not possible, but as the many facets of our complex experiences grow more together into a life - the more our resources are available for coping, understanding, receiving from and giving to others - the fuller and more satisfying is living h

This particular formulation of psychotherapy’s process reflects some of the substance of God’s intentions toward us, to make our being whole by revealing to us who we are to Him and who He is to us. This divine relationship is manifest by God’s Spirit in the union of God the Father and God the Son, Jesus, whose life on earth was transparent before His Father and one with Him. It is because of who Jesus is and what He did that we can hope for a living relationship with God. Jesus reveals both the way to God and the goal of this way which is God, Himself, because He is God’s complete and satisfying love for us. Jesus called Himself Lord of the Sabbath, the One in whose wholeness we can hope to be made whole, so we can rest in Him. In His sacrificial life, the contradiction of doing rest is resolved. Our inability to cease doing and God’s holy rest are reconciled in Jesus, who is our rest. Trusting Jesus, we enter God’s transforming rest

I chose two approaches in psychotherapy that can help explain certain spiritual dynamics: attachment theory and mindfulness. Both have configured ways of understanding and helping people who struggle with all kinds of psychological difficulties. We will explore attachment theory as it compares and contrasts with our relationships with God and others. We will also look at mindfulness as a tool that can, among other things, challenge our understanding of the mystery and power of our heart focus. Mindfulness is a practice of focusing on the present without judgment. There is no judgment with God when we trust Him to be who He is to us

Ultimately, I hope this book serves to support and encourage our movement toward God, however fierce or feeble that movement is. God doesn’t require us to establish a relationship with Him. He knows what to expect from us, because He made us. But He does require our honest confession that we cannot make an eternal, sovereign God come down to our level and conform to our ways. He alone can choose to initiate communion with us, and He alone knows how. We can only hope in and wait on His grace to will and to do these things. As we witness His abundant grace, we find endless opportunities for hope

We also need to keep close what is essential to learning God: remembering that we do not know Him as well as we think we do. When we are less confident in our opinions and judgments of God, we become more available to learn and receive from Him, our holy Other. God asks us to simply come to Him as we are, His children, so that He can simply be to us who He is, our Father. His ways are much too simple and too close for us to ever analyze or perceive on our own, but they perfectly suit His grace that longs to freely give Himself to us so we can rest in Him. It is His will for us, His promise that is our hope

They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea 

Then in that day the nations will resort to the Root of Jesse, who will stand as a signal for the peoples; and His resting place will be glorious (Isaiah 11:9-10)