Remember that New Age book "The Secret"? I haven't read it, but I have a feeling this secret is both harder to take, and more instructive in the long run:
The truth about ourselves is inevitable; whatever it is, it is
going to come up. When the dust settles after the first fervor of
religious conversion, we once again confront our old temptations. They
may be worse than before because now we are more honest, open, and
vulnerable. The great struggle is not to get discouraged when the divine reassurance begins to recede. It seems that God wants us to know experientially just what he has been putting up with throughout our lives.
He seems to expect us to receive this information not as a reproach, but
as a gift - like a friend revealing secrets to a friend. But instead of saying, 'Thanks,' we are ready to get up and walk out.
From Thomas Keating's
Invitation to Love (p. 16), which pairs nicely with this
meditation on Jacob from Frank Lake (via Scott Jones at Mockingbird).
Remember that New Age book "The Secret"? I haven't read it, but I have a feeling this secret is both harder to take, and more instructive in the long run: