Devotions from Gray Moon’s book Apprenticeship with Jesus

Sometimes life gives us lots of painful shocks and we try to deaden the pain.  The painkillers may take the form of certain patterns of behavior—like perfectionism, overachievement, approval seeking, avoidance, people pleasing, co-dependence, always being in control etc.  Regardless of the form, these God-substitutes are idols . 

But the way through the rough spots  resembles the steps of AA: confession of my addiction to self-sufficiency, admission of my helplessness to live a meaningful life on my own terms, and a request to return to living life by God’s side who always welcome us back to his embrace.

We may also go through the dryness of the “dark night of the soul” when we feel separated from God and we can’t figure out what is going on or what we are doing wrong. But HE has moved us farther down the road and during this dark night we are to seek Him and go to Him again. When we do we realize we aren’t the same person. We have moved and we are now closer to home. 
But what does it matter if our rough spot is due to us moving toward idols or God moving us on the path to greater maturity, our job is the same. We say, Here I am, Lord, helpless without you.”