“You can’t get away from yourself by moving
from one place to another.”
— Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)
Everyone faces denial. Life gets
too big on us or it is a fact that we cannot face the truth without some time
to play in the sandbox, pretending everything is okay.
But then we are ashamed of being
in denial. That’s a very unfortunate thing. But it’s a fact of life that that
which we are ashamed of is our perennially intermittent condition.
We deny commonly.
Now the only defence we have
against the phenomenon of denial that sweeps in unsuspectingly, is the
rampantly brutal truth as we go there by faith. The quicker we can ‘fess-up’,
the quicker we call denial a liar.
Beyond the Purpose of Denial
Understanding that denial has a
role in protecting us against those things we cannot bear, our aim has to be to
bear the truth quicker and quicker, and more and more.
The purpose of denial is a good
one—in its own right. It seeks to protect us. But unfortunately, it seeks to
protect our fear. Therefore, denial is not truly beneficial.
Getting beyond denial is again
about truth; not a reticence of truth, but our acceptance of it, and even our
willing and enthusiastic receipt of truth.
Seekers of truth will grow in this
life, but those who cannot handle the truth will remain in their denial; in
their self-designed comfort, which is a fabrication custom-made to maintain a
sentimental and ‘safe’ idea of one’s self.
Overcoming Denial
Those blessed most in life have
the uncanny way of keeping watch over themselves. They give God constant
invitation to search their deeper intent, and when God does so there is
revealed much usable information.
Overcoming denial is about
receiving the information that God gives us by his special divine revelation, taking
it humbly, always within the moment, and turning back toward the truth,
disregarding the cost of pride.
There are two necessary ideas of
response to denial that come into play:
1. awareness
2. action
When we are aware of an issue—in
the present case, denial—our spiritual eyebrows are raised. Upon awareness is
the prompting for action. Who, in becoming aware, would not act? It takes
discernment to reconcile awareness, but then it takes courage, also, to
reconcile the act. We need both.
Having become aware, we act, in
accord with the truth, and so overcome our denial.
***
As everybody hurts, everybody
denies their hurt, at least initially. Though denial seeks to protect us, it is
ultimately damaging. As we become aware and then act, we overcome our denial,
facing our truths, and we go on in growth toward blessing.
© 2013 S. J. Wickham.
No comments:
Post a Comment