Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion. God's love for you and his choice of you constitute your worth. Accept that, and let it become the most important thing in your life.

We miss Jesus' point entirely when we use His words as weapons against others.

Shame--what happened when my mother, the dragon, huffed and puffed and blew my self down.

We even refuse to be our true self with God- and then wonder why we lack intimacy with him.

Charles de Foucauld, the found of the Little Brothers of Jesus, wrote a single sentence that's ahad a profound impact on my life. He said, "The one thing we owe absolutely to God is never to be afraid of anything." Never to be afraid of anything, even death, which, after all, is but that final breakthrough into the open, waiting, outstretched arms of Abba.

Those who have the disease called Jesus will never be cured.

The Christian with depth is the person who has failed and who has learned to live with it.