True Self / False Self

I have learned a hard lesson about the spiritual life: you cannot live even partially in your false self, or it will cause no end of trouble for you. Details make good stories, but this is not a story blog, but a spiritual one. Bottom line is I created a false self to fit into a situation in which I really had no place. The situation did not represent me as who I truly am, it called forth the parts of my past which are better off asleep, unremembered, and long buried in the "cloud of forgetting."

Certainly, I'm not the only person in the spiritual life slips into the false self from time to time, but I realized last night how much power that false self had over me, what power it had to hurt me, and distract me from what is truly important in my life. Today is the feast of St. Ignatius, founder of the Jesuits, and he discovered that when he dwelt upon memories of his past, he was unhappy when he stopped thinking of them, but that when he dwelt upon thoughts of God, he was happy even when he stopped thinking of them.

I have taken that as a lesson. My challenge to you, my ten or so readers, is to beware of your false self. Do not let it have a chance to grow in you, or it will cause you harm.

Peace and Love
Steve