Self-Image

Richard Rohr writes in Preparing for Christmas: Daily Meditations for Advent, "One of the major problems in the spiritual life is our attachment to our own self-image - either positively or negatively created."

We all have a self-image, right? Sometimes we think too highly of ourselves. I can imagine this would be an obstacle to coming close to God. If we have no humility, no sense of our own sinfulness, no idea that we are not better than others - if we rank ourselves equal with God, then it would be hard to accept our need for God.

But, if we judge ourselves too harshly, if we see ourselves as "bad" and despicable, if we have no respect for God's creation in us, then it would be difficult to believe that God (or anyone else) can love us at all.

Rohr goes on to say, "Fortunately, that is what the Spirit has to strip away from us so that we can find our 'triumph and glory,' as Isaiah says, in God's image of us rather than in our image of ourselves...."

We often say we are made in God's image, created in God's image.  I've never connected it to self-image before, though. Think about the work of the Holy Spirit, removing our own self-image and replacing it with God's image in us and of us. We would see our need for God and also accept that God loves us, completely and without hesitation. 

Imagine.