Ann Belford Ulanov, The Living God and Our Living Psyche: What Christians Can Learn from Carl Jung. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2008, Kindle location 820.
The psyche wants to be whole, which does not mean perfect, but that all parts are brought in. God wants all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, not just the parts we choose. This is coming home, taking acceptance all the way down. The shameful secret, the hidden manipulation, even the murderous intent and, as well, the undared talent and buried tenderness, also get a seat at the table.
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We might think we know what God wants from us, and then we discover we’ve been trying to please someone else, some inner editor who tells us how we “ought” to be, some childhood phantom, not God at all. God knows how to use every part of us, no matter how despised: the inner Judas, the crippled part, the shadow. God also knows how to use the greatness and daring that is in us, the parts we may be afraid to use for fear of failure or vanity.
Loving God, help me to offer all of myself to your loving service. Help me to gather in the lost, the despised, the poor. Help me to offer compassion to each of these within myself and help me also to bring this compassion out into the world. Help me to dare to use all my talents, offering the gifts you have given me back to you.
Today, O God of my understanding, I feel ready for a seat at the table, to serve and receive, to be in Your glorious presence and to offer my own, as You need me both outside in the world and in the solitude of my quietude. Thank You for the invitation. Thank You for creating me and the table itself!
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