We’ve been doing it ever since the Garden of Eden—distancing from God in shame and fear in the midst of our sins and failures. We also often distance from self-awareness in the midst of our sins and failures. We shove those things that are uncomfortable down and out of our awareness so that we don’t have to feel them or deal with them.
Shame and fear of punishment, as responses to sin and failure, can lead to what Christian author and pastor Peter Scazerro has called a “tip of the iceberg spirituality,” which can limit the depth of our relationship with God. In situations of tip-of-the-iceberg spirituality, 90% of what is affecting our lives is below the “waterline” in terms of our conscious self-awareness.
David says about God in Psalm 51:6, “You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.” It’s truth and wisdom in the depths of our beings that ultimately represent God’s antidotes for tip-of-the-iceberg spirituality and for the shame and fear that lead to tip-of-the-iceberg spirituality.
We learn from the conversation between Jesus and the woman at the well that what is not revealed is not healed. Jesus revealed the woman to herself before he revealed himself to the woman. This teaches us much about the relationship between self-awareness and the ability to see God clearly. We also learn from David that what is out of awareness cannot be transformed. When Nathan helped David understand the gravity of his sin, David’s greater self-awareness led to the transformation of his relationship with God. A life without internal awareness contains no depth of relationship with God—and two of the primary things that work against internal awareness are shame and fear of punishment.
Into situations of tip-of-the-iceberg spirituality comes the transforming power of the truth of God “in the inward being” and His “wisdom in my secret heart.” It’s the truth of the unconditional, unmerited love of God that lies at the heart of the gospel message, declaring, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…” (Romans 8:1). The reality of that truth gives us the courage to become aware of all of ourselves, including our sins and failures, and to yield all of ourselves to God in such a way that redemption and renewal are possible for all of who we are.
Trevor Hudson has described this miracle of self-awareness and the implications for our relationship with God, saying, “The divine host presides over the banquet at the deep center of our beings…. [He] invites us to search out the poor, crippled, blind, and lame aspects of our own inner lives and bring them into the banqueting chamber. Here the living Christ receives them with open arms and begins to include them in the new person that he is patiently forming.”
