Letting go of our illusions

In this morning’s meditation, I reflected upon “The Teaching of Disillusionment” from Oscar Chamber’s My Utmost to His Highest. I quote: 

 “Disillusionment means having no more misconceptions, false impressions, and false judgments in life; it means being free from those deceptions….[T]he disillusionment that comes from God brings us to the point where we see people as they really are, [including ourselves] yet without any cynicism or any stinging and bitter criticism.  Many of the things in life that inflict the greatest injury, grief, or pain, stem from the fact that we suffer from illusions.  We are not true to one another as facts, seeing each other as we really are; we are only true to our misconceived ideas of one another.  According to our thinking, everything is either delightful and good, or it is evil, malicious and cowardly [and we can easily apply this perception to ourselves, as well].

“Refusing to be disillusioned is the cause of much of the suffering of human life….There is only one Being who can completely satisfy to the absolute depth of the hurting human heart, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ…Our Lord trusted no one, and never placed His faith in people, yet He was never suspicious or bitter. Our Lord’s confidence in God, and in what God’s grace could do for anyone, was so perfect that He never despaired, never giving up hope for any person. If our trust is placed in human beings, we will end up despairing of everyone” [including ourselves] (My Utmost to His Highest, July 30).

May our confidence in God, “in what God’s grace could do for anyone” become so strong that we never, never despair  nor ever, ever give up “hope for any person,” never give up hope for ourselves.  God brings each and every one of us closer to Himself in the sufferings we endure, in the sufferings we bring to the foot of His Cross.