paying attention to God is hard
Just finished a thoroughly engaging book by Leighton Ford about how we can pay attention to God. I was struck by this observation he makes.
Psychiatrist Gerald May describes addictions as “attachments,” coming from the Frend word attache, which means to be nailed to something. He believes that we are nailed to our addictions — drugs or alcohol, sex or relationships, work or even our “self-image” — because we refuse or are afraid to admit our need of grace. Because we will not humble ourselves to acknowledge both our humanness and our brokenness, we desperately seek to control our lives, rather than experience the freedom of living as the children of God.
At the end of the day, then, inattentiveness is a control issue: I would rather try to control the trivial than surrender to the Eternal and end up not in control at all. And we refuse to surrender control because we deep down think we have to justify our existence rather than be justified by the free grace of God.
[emphasis added by me]
