Written by Dan Brown, MA (Director of Operations, Senior Clinician)
"Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, ‘Are you for us or for our enemies?’ ‘Neither,’ he replied, ‘but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.’ Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, ‘What message does my Lord have for his servant?’ The commander of the Lord’s army replied, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.’ And Joshua did so.” (Joshua 5:13-15)
Oftentimes we forget that God is in control of our lives and the battles we are facing. We also can wrongly think that He is always on our side in a disagreement. Both you and the person on the other side of the disagreement are made in the image of God. Our pride can keep us from seeing this as we become caught in a vortex of ME ME ME. Or we just forget. Or possibly our self-confidence can be low to the point where we can only see the ways in which we don’t stack up in the midst of these moments. Joshua was surely doubting his ability to lead, and he too turned inward and forgot God’s presence.
In his book The Gift of Being Yourself, David Benner illuminates the idea of true self and false self. For the Christian, the true self is in touch with its humanity and knows its limits and can deeply connect with the Almighty. The false self is critical of self and others and tries to control and manipulate. In these false self moments, we must realize that we are out of center and return to our true self in order to hear God more clearly and understand ourselves more fully.
St. Augustine prayed, "Grant, Lord, that I may know myself that I may know thee." Similarly, John Calvin asserts in his Institutes, "It is evident that man never attains to a true self-knowledge until he has previously contemplated the face of God, and come down after such contemplation to look into himself." As we grow in our understanding of self and live within our true selves more authentically, we can more easily discern God's voice and presence. We can be freed from illusions and misconceptions and stop striving to be someone we are not or think the world around wants or needs us to be. When we do this, we come to realize that we can be standing on holy ground in the midst of our deepest struggles.