September 11 – Shadow and Self-Acceptance
Your shadow is closer to God than your false self, because it is authentic. Robert A. Johnson
Gregg’s Reflection
Carl Jung taught that the path to wholeness requires integration of the shadow — those parts of ourselves we repress or deny. Left unacknowledged, the shadow will rule us from the dark. But when brought into awareness with honesty and compassion, it becomes an opening for grace.
In my own journey, I have wrestled with anger, shame, and guilt that I once tried to bury. For years I believed that denying them would make me more faithful or more spiritual. Instead, I discovered that repression only clouded my vision and kept love at bay. The healing came when I began to name those hidden parts, to accept them, and to invite God’s presence into the very places I wanted to avoid.
Henri Nouwen said it simply: the self we most want to hide is often the very place God chooses to meet us. The cross itself reveals this paradox — Christ crucified between two criminals, refusing to deny the brokenness that surrounds us, but holding it in God’s redeeming embrace. Our shadow is not the end of the story; it is the place where resurrection begins.
Scripture
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Psalm 139:23–24
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:8–9
Ancient Quotes
The soul that loves God has to make itself beautiful by the labor of virtue, and then it will be able to look upon the Beauty that is God.
Gregory of Nyssa, Homilies on the Song of Songs
We must cast off all the activities of the mind and be divested of all that is visible and invisible, until we enter the darkness where God truly dwells.
Pseudo-Dionysius, Mystical Theology 1.1
Modern Quotes
What if I should discover that the least among them all… the very enemy himself – that these are within me, and that I myself stand in need of the alms of my own kindness – that I myself am the enemy who must be loved – what then?
Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, p. 234–235
Perhaps no psychologist has stressed the need of self-acceptance as the way to self-realization so much as Carl Jung… To come to an inner unity, totality and wholeness, every part of our self should be accepted and integrated.
Henri Nouwen, Daily Devotion, Jan 17, 2021
Your shadow is closer to God than your false self, because it is authentic.
Robert A. Johnson, Owning Your Own Shadow
Journaling Prompts
- What hidden part of yourself needs kindness rather than condemnation?
- How has denying your shadow caused more pain than healing?
- Where might God be inviting you to accept your brokenness as a place of encounter?
- How does the cross show you that even the shadow can be redeemed?
Go deeper into this week’s theme:
Read the full Week 37 Reflection: Psycho/Spiritual Work