While we live in the Black Hills, I can’t get enough of sights like these!
While we live in the Black Hills, I can’t get enough of sights like these!
We’re in prep mode for our trip to De Smet and Sioux Falls. We still need sufficient snacks and meals for the first two days, and there’s some packing to do, but our general itinerary is set. I’m not feeling particularly eager about the trip at the moment; mostly because we’ve just begun that time of year when my allergies ambush me mercilessly.
Ours is a journey towards maturity, towards wholeness. As we become more whole our sense of identity steadies. How much anguish is caused by insecurity!
Yet the anguish of insecurity prods us to seek validating relationship. Perhaps validation in relationship with humans or animals. A Christian learns to seek it in prayer to the Father.
One who moves towards wholeness craves validation less and from better sources. An insecure teen may seek validation in relationships which are harmful and self-destructive but will become more discerning and less recklessly driven as they mature. A Christian who craves validation from the Father has found the source par-excellence and needs never find another. However, such a one’s motivations shift as insecurity diminishes.
When I was a younger man, how much of my anguished prayer was birthed of insecurity! But it will not do to live forever in uncertainty; I must become whole. The formulas to which I once clung to diminish my pain are less practiced without the nipping hounds of insecurity to drive me into them (though my past motives are never a subject of certainty).
Wholeness leads toward freedom, or choice untainted by insecurity. The whole individual, as in the case of the Christ, is constrained only by one’s own delight of others and riches of character. He chooses relationship with the Father and those he meets solely because he chooses. He is who he is. And so also must we become if we are to be his companion/ally/suitable helper/bride. [Gen 2:20] #WalkingMusings
In my experience, transition from insecurity towards wholeness provokes disconcerting feelings. The release of false motivation is like loosing one’s boat from a sure anchor to drift into misty waters in search of another anchor-spot. Courage is essential. At this present stage I possess the courage, but I wish the grappling-hook attraction of a treasure hunt, the insecurity-hound’s opposite.