Identity Under Attack (Beyond Identiy, Chapter 1)

“Other people exist as means to buttress their weak and dependent sense of self, not as persons in their own right. Motivated by fear and anxiety they are like a baby bird in a nest with a huge open mouth pointed to the sky shouting ‘feed me!’ ‘make me feel like a person!’” p.5

What a mirror statement. I know I have felt this, and thought this, even if I may never have verbalized this. Looking back over my personal journey, I can see a desperate cry, especially from older, wiser, more gifted men, particularly in ministry, to pour their life into me, and being disappointed when it hasn’t happened. While there’s nothing wrong for this desire, I have viewed other people as solely existing for my needs, and not as persons with their own lives, dilemmas and complications of their own.

But how do you reconcile these two? What is the balance between craving mentoring to guide and instruct, and craving approval and worth to feed this insecurity?

Identity Under Attack (Beyond Identiy)

Well,

Since it has been a thoroughly long time since I've posted anything on either of my blogs (I think I have 3 now), I'm trying to get back into it with a series of posts from some of the reading I've been doing while in seminary. I don't imaging that there are too many of you out there still reading this thing, but if there are, I hope you enjoy and are encouraged. Some posts will be informative/provoke-a-thought, others will probably be a little more raw/journal-entry type, so don't be offended by either. This next series of posts will mostly revolve around the book "Beyond Identity" by Dick Keyes.

Enjoy!