I wanted to do more on Inside Out yesterday.  Mostly because one of the main premises of the book is how our self-protective strategies are sin.  And He is not letting me off the hook in this department.

But the day was jam-packed. 

I have a preschooler!!



With Ms Abbey

He handled the whole thing like a champ.  He was so ready.  Public schools had in-service today, so big brother got to watch little brother go to his first day.  I was glad for that timing.  Caden and I made sure to hang back and let him lead us to the room and show us what to do. 

It was fun just hanging with Caden for the afternoon.  It was even more fun to hear him say, “I miss Caleb.  Everything is more fun with Caleb.”

* Virtual hi-five to all other parents out there *

So here is a bit more.  I know we’re hitting the negatives first.  But it helps us set up the positives that are coming soon:

“Does a certain model [of change] endorse obedience and trust as the route to producing realness, humility, and a richer sense of being alive?  Or does it tend to shape people into the likeness of a Christian …without developing within them that powerful and liberating vitality that is at once threatening and attractive? 

…The lamp for our path illumes our next step but leaves much ahead, beside and behind in darkness.  Change from the inside out will always be…a work of God and must therefore remain a mystery…

We are both victims in the world and agents in it.  As longing people who thirst for what this world can never provide, we have all suffered disappointment.  We have been hurt by others.  But we are also agents, choosing to respond to life according to our understanding of what is best.  Because we’re foolishly determined to arrange for our own gratification, we refuse to believe God and to trust Him with our longings in a way that frees us to deeply love others…

…sin in our heart is where we must look to find the dirt that needs cleansing…In order to have a ‘right heart,’ we must understand and deal with its capacity for subtle sin…

I believe there’s a simple reason why sin in the heart, that commitment to self-protection that manifests itself in so many defensive styles of relating, is so rarely recognized as deep and serious.  We can’t recognize self-protection until we see what we’re protecting.

Until we face our disappointment as a victim, we cannot clearly identify the strategies we’ve adopted to insulate ourself from further disappointment.

Only a deep awareness of our own profound disappointment (pain in our heart) can enable us to realize our desires for satisfaction have become demands for relief (sin in our heart).

Although we may define the problem of self-protection, we won’t identify the problem in our own life until we’re in touch with the damage to our soul caused by other people’s sinfulness, a painful damage that motivates our self-protection in the first place.

Change from the inside out is rare.  Very few people are willing to deeply embrace their disappointment.  And even fewer, when they’ve faced their disappointment and are filled with excruciating pain and sadness, are willing to firmly say,

‘My pain is not the problem.  The problem is my determination to relieve my pain any way I can.'”

Inside Out, pgs. 178, 181, 184