Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection. Success, popularity, and power can indeed present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from the way they are part of the much larger temptation to self-rejection. When we have come to believe in the voices that call us worthless and unlovable, then success, popularity, and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions. The real trap, however, is self-rejection. As soon as someone accuses me or criticizes me, as soon as I am rejected, left alone, or abandoned, I find myself thinking, "Well, that proves once again that I am a nobody." .. [My dark side says, ] I am no good.. I deserve to be pushed aside, forgotten, rejected, and abandoned. Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the "Beloved." Being the Beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence. Henri J.m. Nouwen
About This Quote

"I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection." In his book "The Road Less Traveled," M. Scott Peck calls self-rejection the "ultimate trap." He writes: "Self-rejection can be a greater danger to spiritual growth than any other single factor. For while it may be true that we have no self-esteem to lose by rejecting ourselves, it is also true that we have a great deal to gain by rejecting ourselves. When I say this it will sound paradoxical.

The reason for this paradox lies in the fact that if we reject ourselves too much we will become so absent from ourselves that we will cease to exist as a separate entity at all. In other words, if we are too harsh with ourselves we will become so unattached from our selves that we cease to exist as selves at all. Nothing worse can happen to us than this because we will then cease to exist as separate entities and merge with the great universal Self.

This is annihilation." "It is very easy for me to lose track of myself and then end up like a leaf in the wind, blown about at random and aimlessly until I am completely lost and forgotten. The harder I try to stay focused on myself the more difficult it becomes for me to make any kind of sense of my life and my world."

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  1. Forgiveness is the name of love practiced among people who love poorly. The hard truth is that all people love poorly. We need to forgive and be forgiven every day, every hour increasingly. That is the great work of love among the fellowship of the...
  2. Every time we make the decision to love someone, we open ourselves to great suffering, because those we most love cause us not only great joy but also great pain. The greatest pain comes from leaving. When the child leaves home, when the husband or...
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  4. When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and...
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