AN ELEGANT, PROFOUND QUESTION
After reading yesterday’s blog entitled, Prepare for Battle, my special friend in Mexico asked, “How can I identify the enemy besides CV-19?”
Enemy identification is difficult because the enemy is crafty. When I began a family and personal counseling clinic in Spokane, a wise clinical psychologist told me I would not be truly effective until after I had counseled 200 clients. This was because the most challenging skill was discerning how to tell the client the true enemy was never the perceived problem they so often communicated. The four human traits I discovered were:
- People have a natural inclination to lie about their selfhood to themselves.
- People have a natural resistance to wanting to know the truth about themselves because all too often the truth initially is much more painful than the actual enemy.
- People committed to learning the skills of enemy identification must seek wisdom from sources who have a proven track record and a life worthy of being imitated.
- People committed to uncovering insights into enemy identification must be dedicated to mastering their own self-existential diagnosis skills.
If you want to beat your enemies, and if you believe anything written in Words of Hope, the first step is to BELIEVE YOU HAVE ENEMIES that want to hurt and destroy you, especially at your weak points. IDENTIFY THESE ENEMIES. Then shine a spotlight on them and DEFEAT THEM. If I could be this spotlight for you, I would love to help. May I suggest to you some enemy possibilities.
Minor Enemies: Negative talk, laziness, procrastination, critical attitude, jealousy, anger, resentment, bitterness, self-loathing, excuses, blaming others, ingratitude, selfishness. If left unchecked at this level, they can grow into monster enemies.
Serious Enemies: Depression, suicidal thoughts, addictions that control behavior, hatred of a spouse, hatred of a job, health problems such as cancer, diabetes, or heart disease.
Monster Enemies: Loss of all hope, a give-up-and-quit attitude, destruction of your faith, death of the most important people in your life.
Because we live, life does matter! We live only once. Personally, I have been in the worst, darkest place internally, feeling there is no human solution. Life can seem hopeless because a spiritual dark enemy is happy when you are missing out on real life. Yet, Jesus as the Good Shepherd said He came that we (His sheep) might have a full, rich and satisfying life because we are of value to Him. This means we can have His abundant graces now and eternally (John 10:10).
