If we choose not to find life in a beautifully dependent relationship with our Creator, we must strive to find life in our doing, in how we appear, and in what we can acquire on our own.
These strategies for acquiring life never fully satisfy, even when we are successful at them, and so we have a persistent sense of emptiness and shame that we try to hide.
If part of my strategy for getting life is having others regard my opinions as right, for example, I must conceal all honest doubts that I have.
If part of my strategy is being acknowledged as successful, I must conceal all failures.
Or if part of my strategy is appearing holy, I must conceal all struggles with sin.
The idol from which we strive to get life determines what behaviors we must display and what realities we must conceal.
From “Seeing is Believing” by Greg Boyd
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