We are told Christians don’t think of themselves. It is others, not themselves, they think of. To think on ourselves, we are taught, is selfish, and the less we focus inward the more we think only of others. 

It is true, selfish people are self-consumed, but is really because we think of ourselves too much? Or is it that we are unrecognizing of our own impulses and unfamiliar with the darker desires of our nature?

How then does an unselfish person, a Christian, relate to his inner self? What are healthy self skills to develop? 

Self-Awareness

It is a fundamentally Christian activity to pause and gaze inward at the spinning cogs and pulleys of our inward selves, to explore the inner terrain of the soul. Spiritual regeneration is an internal process you participate in. You observe honestly, feel deeply, question thoroughly. Self-examination is a spiritual skill, a practice, often painful and humiliating, that opens the soul to light. How can you repent from what you don’t know? How can I change what I can’t name? We can never comprehend completely that vast and mysterious geography of our inner selves, but a working familiarity with the daily machinations of the heart is the groundwork for seeing yourself as God does. James’ book speaks of time in front of a mirror, and of the foolishness–not of self-reflection–but of dismissing and forgetting what is seen.

Self-acceptance

It is the nature of the beast within to either exult or despair at what we find inside. Good Christian reflection is accepting of the package of you: the good, the bad and the ugly, as we say. You are loved, you are a project, you have potentialities in you for the whole array of outcomes. It is Christian to nod and own the whole mess without judgement. 

Self-confrontation

Christian reflection brings self-confrontation. Good self-health is robust internal dialogue with the many voices of your self. Good self-health is the ability to ring the supper bell, to gather everyone to the table and wave the receipts and the test results. Heart of mine, we have a problem. What are we gonna do about it? And so begin the negotiations, the confessions, the dialogue about solutions and resolutions. 

Self-interruption

We operate internally along familiar, repeated pathways. We go down the same roads. We are habitual and routine when we think and feel. Am I able to step into my own path and interrupt the schedule, to disrupt and upset the neurological norms?

To turn to the inward is to step into the vast and shadowy world of spirit and soul and mind. This is the real God’s country. This is where it happens.

Spirit, guide me into myself. Show me what is there. Open me, heal me.