When I was a college student, I told my spiritual director that I needed to love myself more. He chuckled and responded, “Good luck with that!” He asked me if I worried about self-esteem when I was praying, meditating, or serving. Of course, I could only answer no. Self-love is one of the most misunderstood concepts in contemporary culture. Far too often self-love has been reduced to infatuation with the personality or self-image. This kind of self-love requires an endless stream of praise, stroking, and sweet talk from self and others, and it never really works because it is not self-love at all. Authentic self-love is not self-generated, but flows naturally when we place ourselves in God’s presence so that God can mirror to us who we really are — our actual identity and our true essence. In catching a glimpse of God, we begin to experience ourselves as God’s image and likeness. As such, we naturally and effortlessly radiate goodness, creativity, strength, and compassion. We become love itself.
God, when you hold the mirror,
Help me to believe what I see in it.
This week’s passages come from Isha Das’ book Living Grace: A Daily Companion for Meditation and Contemplation.
