God's Embrace Renewal Centers

            Even with such a noble identity many of us struggle with low self-esteem, shame and guilt. Life is summed up as the perennial half empty glass. Some never get past a pessimistic assessment of their lives because they are so trapped in their mistakes and failures. Others have wandered through the wilderness of addictions and degradation. The question of our identity is a complex one, as it is multi-layered. As we go through life, we realize that our families and genes have shaped our identity in significant ways. At the same time, we have been able to alter our characters in meaningful ways through gaining experience and wisdom, thus replacing some of our maladjusted habits with life-enhancing attitudes. Trends and influences around us play an important role in shaping and grounding our identity.  We absorb the positive influences of mentors and friends when we open ourselves to their wisdom and effective lifestyle. By the same token our chances of assuming bad habits are high when we surround ourselves with negative and harmful influences.

            In Chapter 6 of Matthew’s gospel, in teaching his disciples how to pray Jesus asks them and us to address God as “Father.”  “Abba” is a word similar to words in other languages that infants use to address their parents when they are beginning to utter intelligible sounds. Given the nature of the infant such names or terms are easy to pronounce. They are names that are also life lines for the toddler. At one year of age an infant has no choice except to depend totally on its parents. Given its helplessness to fend for itself it has no other option. When this fundamental trust in its parents is reverenced, an infant grows up healthy and secure. When parents abuse this sacred trust society deals with the consequences of abuse and neglect. In the prayer Jesus taught us, he is asking us as adults to put on the mind and heart of an infant and address God with total confidence and trust, believing that no other option would be in our best interests. In a very real sense Jesus is asking us to trust his Father completely even though our ability to trust others might have been marred because of our own suffering and sin.

            A reading of Ephesians 1:3-10 provides an inkling of God’s dynamic love for us. To the human mind, God’s commitment to us is utterly incomprehensible. More than we can ever imagine or conceive, God knows and abhors the reality of sin. God also knows how enslaved humankind has been to the treachery and deceit of Satan and sin. In spite of or maybe it is more appropriate to say, because of our sinfulness, God holds on to the bold and enthusiastic decision made from all eternity that we would be the divine image and likeness. And in his letter to the Ephesians, Paul spells out what this means when he says, “Praised be the God and Father or our Lord Jesus Christ who has bestowed on us in Christ every spiritual blessing in the heavens! God chose us in him before the world began, to be holy and blameless in his sight, to be full of love.”