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Healing from Attachment Anxiety and Chronic Mistrust
Attachment anxiety often stems from a caregiver who finds the needs of a baby overwhelming. Contrary to popular wisdom, babies are extremely sensitive to their mothers’ responses. If Mama feels she can’t possibly fulfill the needs of her baby, the baby learns to become demanding. The more he or she cries, the more attention baby gets. But the emotional support is inadequate because just as mama is afraid she isn’t enough, the baby also internalizes that anxious message. The belief developed in infancy and carried on into adult relationships is I can’t get enough! Later, in adulthood, romantic relationships and friendships become unwitting repetitions of this unconscious sense of abandonment. …
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The Unknown God: Our Misconception of Identity Part 2
A misconception of identity is as dangerous as a misconception of love. I used to think that very little mattered. By this, I mean that whenever things happened that were unpleasant or painful, I would dismiss it with the idea that it didn’t matter. I would just get over it. Of course, this was merely a minimization of how deeply events really affected me. As I moved out of denial, I began to realize that everything matters, though perhaps not with the same impact. And the one that matters most is how we understand ourselves in relation to God and our neighbor. Our ways of relating to others are one…
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Setting God Free: How Attachment Style Affects Faith
I bear witness to many people struggling to gain a toehold in their relationship with God. For some, God is like an unreachable guru on top of a distant mountain. If you find Him, He only speaks in riddles. For others, His face resembles the stern idols on Easter Island. Judgment is in the forecast, and soon. For still others, God is capricious, changing His mind about what good things He will or will not allow them to have in their lives. Now He loves me. Now He loves me not. The most painful iteration of God, I think, is the silent one. He is the all-seeing, all-knowing monolith who…