从迷惘到信靠
带来真正的成长
经文
约书亚记一1-9
1耶和华的仆人摩西死了以后,耶和华晓谕摩西的帮手,嫩的儿子约书亚,说:
2我的仆人摩西死了。现在你要起来,和众百姓过这约但河,往我所要赐给以色列人的地去。
3凡你们脚掌所踏之地,我都照着我所应许摩西的话赐给你们了。
4从旷野和这利巴嫩,直到伯拉大河,赫人的全地,又到大海日落之处,都要作你们的境界。
5你平生的日子,必无一人能在你面前站立得住。我怎样与摩西同在,也必照样与你同在;我必不撇下你,也不丢弃你。
6你当刚强壮胆!因为你必使这百姓承受那地为业,就是我向他们列祖起誓应许赐给他们的地。
7只要刚强,大大壮胆,谨守遵行我仆人摩西所吩咐你的一切律法,不可偏离左右,使你无论往那里去,都可以顺利。
8这律法书不可离开你的口,总要昼夜思想,好使你谨守遵行这书上所写的一切话。如此,你的道路就可以亨通,凡事顺利。
9我岂没有吩咐你吗?你当刚强壮胆!不要惧怕,也不要惊惶;因为你无论往那里去,耶和华你的神必与你同在。
信息分享
今天,我们继续思考「愿意承认自己的感受」这个重要的观念。事实是,大部分的人都不愿意「感受」负面的情绪,大家会设法尽快把它除去。
人的个性里面有一种适应性的潜能,称为「防卫机制」,它能够在必要的时候帮助我们借着压抑或压制来除去负面的感受。压抑涉及将它们推往意识以下,去到潜意识那里,比如说:「我现在不再去想它,因为太痛苦了」。压制是将它们推进无意识里面,完全忘记它们的存在。这些「防卫机制」可以缓解我们在需要面对不能接受的情绪时的焦虑,令我们暂时脱离困境,但却没有把问题解决。
唯一促使我们能够全面成长的方法是愿意面对感受,不管它们是多么可怕和具有威胁性。当然,这是不容易的事情,我自己在这方面仍然有挣扎。虽然与二十年前的我相比,现在的我更能够面对那些不能接受的感受,只是我前面要走的道路还很长远。要谨记我昨天说过的话,因为那是十分重要的:我们越是将不能接受的感受推开、害怕面对或感受它,它就越是继续在我们里面产生反效果。为了我们的精神和灵性健康,我们必须明白任何埋葬在我们里面的情绪都不是死去,而只是被活埋。
「任何被埋葬的情绪都只是被活埋」
进深研究
诗三十二1-5;耶十四20;何五15
1. 诗人闭口不言时有甚么事情发生?
2. 诗人承认自己的地步时有甚么事情发生?
祈祷
我的父、我的神啊,由于情感是我生命里面不可缺少的部分,求您给我勇气面对它们;帮助我明白当我的生命由您掌管的时候,其他一切就不能掌管我了。阿们。
From Confusion to Confidence
The way to real growth
Bible reading:
Joshua 1:1-9
1 After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' aide:
2 "Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites.
3 I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses.
4 Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Mediterranean Sea in the west.
5 No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.
6 Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.
7 "Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.
8 Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."
Message
We must spend another day looking at this important matter of being willing to acknowledge our feelings. The truth is, most of us are unwilling to "feel" a negative emotion and we try to get rid of it as quickly as possible.
Our personalities are equipped with adaptive devices called "defence mechanisms" which come to our aid at such times and help us rid ourselves of negative feelings by either suppressing them or repressing them. Suppression involves pushing them down just below the level of our conscious mind into the subconscious, where we say: "I won't think about that now - it's too hurtful." Repression involves pushing them down into the unconscious where they are completely forgotten. These "defence mechanisms" may get us temporarily off the hook by relieving the anxiety we feel at having to face an unacceptable emotion, but they don't really solve the problem.
The only way to real growth and wholeness is a willingness to face feelings, no matter how terrifying and threatening they may be. It's not easy, of course - I still struggle in this area myself. I know I am better at facing unacceptable feelings than I was, say, twenty years ago - but I still have a long way to go. Keep in mind what I said yesterday, for it is a vitally important matter: to the extent that we push an unacceptable emotion away from us, fearing to face it and feel it, to that extent it will go on working within us counter-productively. For the sake of our mental and spiritual health, we must realise that any emotion that is buried within us is never buried dead - but buried alive.
"Any emotion buried is buried alive"
Prayer
My Father and my God, since it seems my emotions are a vital part of me, give me the courage to be able to face them in the knowledge that when I am mastered by You, I can be mastered by nothing else. Amen.
Further study
Psalm 32:1-5
Jeremiah 14:20
Hosea 5:15
1. What happened when the psalmist kept silent?
2. What happened when he acknowledged his position?
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