Putting the Soul
back in Psychology!
It's NOT what you think.
What is NOT our cross?
Jesus directly said in order to take up our cross and follow Him, we have to first deny ourselves.
Bad psychological emotions and feelings are NOT denying ourselves.
Psychological struggles and disorders are NOT denying ourselves.
Addictions/bad coping are NOT denying ourselves.
Attraction and gender confusion are NOT denying ourselves.
Sin (absence of Truth+Love+Virtues) is NOT denying ourselves.
Blaming our psychological emotions and feelings on others and exterior circumstances is NOT denying ourselves.
Our bad psychological emotions and feelings, addictions/bad coping, psychological struggles and disorders, including gender and attraction confusion, are all the absence and lack of Truth+Love+Virtues and therefore they are NOT our crosses to be taken up and carried while following Jesus Christ.
Our bad/wrong psychological emotions and feelings are NOT a "cross to carry". Bad/wrong psychological emotions and feelings are the result of our failure to have Truth and be Loving+Virtuous. Our bad psychological emotions and feelings are our failure to directly seek and cooperate to receive Truth+Love+Virtues from Jesus Christ in many particular details.
Bad/wrong psychological emotions and feelings that we have in reaction to not getting our way, are us NOT "carrying our cross"; we are sinning. To sin is NOT "carrying our cross". We make ourselves feel bad/wrong psychological emotions and feelings because we are refusing to "carry our cross" of wanting and trying to have Truth and being Loving and Virtuous.
Disordered / distorted attractions in all it's forms and gender confusion are NOT a "cross to carry". They are irrational desires and false beliefs that need to be taken to Jesus Christ for Lasting Healing of Truth+Love+Virtues.
An addiction is NOT a "cross to carry". An addiction is idolatry. The addiction is what we put in the place of The Divine. A person with an addiction refuses to accept and put down the emotional suffering crosses of the past and pick up the cross of learning and living Truth+Love+Virtues in imitation of The Divine, in order to follow Him to Lasting Healing. The person with an addiction is not denying themselves and following Jesus Christ, but only following his or her own bad/wrong: perspectives, attitudes, priorities, judgements, wants and desires.
People with an addiction are NOT following (obeying) The Divine, they are following (obeying) their own selfish physical gratification to stuff their emotional suffering caused by going about the majority of their lives rejecting Truth and failing to be Loving+Virtuous, including blaming their emotional suffering on externals and/or their brain chemistry...rather than going to Jesus for Lasting Healing of Truth+Love+Virtues in order to learn Truth and how to be Loving+Virtuous.
Think you don't have an addiction? Any coping we use to primarily try to stop psychologically feeling bad or psychologically feel better rather than going immediately and directly to The Divine in repentance (remorse) of and seeking Truth, Love, and Virtues to replace our: bad psychological emotions and feelings, irrational thoughts, false beliefs, unrealistic expectations, selfish wants/desires, wrong likes and dislikes, and distorted attractions, is an addiction. Anything we make a daily priority over daily interaction with The Divine is an addiction.
A psychological struggle or disorder (aka erroneously titled "mental illness") is NOT a "cross to carry". A psychological struggle or disorder ("mental illness") is the absence of taking the crosses of childhood wounds or other emotional trauma, plus our interior intellectual sins as above mentioned, directly to The Divine for His Lasting Healing of Truth+Love+Virtues.
If we have a psychological struggle or disorder; "mental illness" etc. we are not "taking up our cross", because we are not completely following The Divine. We are actually rejecting The Divine in many ways. [We can think something to be true about ourselves, but that doesn't make us right.]
We cannot have a psychological struggle or disorder, aka "mental illness", addiction/bad coping, distorted attraction, or gender confusion and be interiorly following Jesus Christ at the same time. The Divine is Truth+Love+Virtues. Are bad psychological emotions and feelings, psychological struggles or disorders; aka "mental illnesses", addictions/bad coping, distorted attraction, or gender confusion Truth+Love+Virtues? Absolutely NOT. And they are all freely intellectually chosen; NOT uncontrollably caused by brain chemistry. For proof see:
Debunking Chemical Imbalance & Psychotropic Medications in Two Minutes
and
True Psychology
Furthermore, others sinning against us is NOT us automatically "carrying our cross". Others sinning NEVER causes our psychological emotions and feelings, including emotional suffering whether morally good or bad. {For an example proving this, see "Carlos and the Banana Bread" on the "Helpful Handouts" page, after becoming a TOS member.}
How do we reject the Cross?
Our own sinfulness is our rejection of the Cross. Each and every time we sin (whether we know how to recognize what is a sin or not) is us rejecting the Cross. Most of the time we don't want Truth or to be Loving and Virtuous, no matter how much we rationalize and try to justify otherwise...and therein lies our rejection of the Cross.
For example, every time we refuse to accept reality we are rejecting "carrying our cross". Having a bad reaction to not getting our way: complaining like we are a victim rather than problem solving, feeling upset or offended, from feeling annoyed or frustrated to angry or furious, and/or trying to control another's free will to choose is us rejecting "carrying our cross".
Failing to go directly to The Divine in repentance (remorse) of our bad psychological emotions and feelings while seeking Truth and Love and Virtues from Him to replace them, is us rejecting "carrying our cross".
Moreover, each time we fail to go directly to The Divine in seeking His perspectives, attitudes, priorities, judgements, and want/desires of Truth and Love in discernment of the errors in ours, we are rejecting "carrying our cross".
Every time you feel bad, don't like what you hear, or don't like what is happening immediately ask The Divine: "What do you want me to learn, change interiorly, and do differently exteriorly?"
What is the Cross?
The Cross and "carrying the cross" is to "deny yourself" by being perfectly Loving, Virtuous, and having Truth. Responding to others' sinfulness and not getting our way, with perfect Truth, Love, and Virtuousness is "denying ourselves" and "carrying our cross".
The Divine, Jesus Christ, Who IS Truth+Love+Virtues denied Himself and carried the Cross of our sins...Meaning, Jesus denied Himself and took on the deserved consequences for all of our sins by responding to all of our sins in perfect Truth+Love+Virtuousness of Sacrifice.
That is what it means for us to "carry our cross"; to respond in perfect Truth and Love and Virtuousness to all the sins of others and when we are not getting what we want, each and every time, which means for us NOT to sin also. This is what it means for us to "carry our cross", in response to others sins or our physical pain and discomfort, through sacrifice, like Jesus did for us, be it less physically painful for us to do so. This is what it means to follow Jesus Christ.
It would be imprudent of us to ever assume or think we already know how to carry our cross by responding in perfect Truth and Love and Virtuousness. Which is why we need to both:
1) love and accept ourselves as we are and go directly to The Divine in repentance (remorse) of any and all of our bad psychological emotions and feelings and seek Truth and Love and Virtues from Him to replace them, and
2) go directly to The Divine in seeking His perspectives, attitudes, priorities, judgements, and want/desires of Truth and Love and Virtues, in discernment of seeking the errors in ours, all day every day.
By doing so, we will be working toward and trying to carry our cross and follow Jesus Christ one step at a time.
Jesus says, "Let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me." To "follow" means to imitate, which in relation to God means to obey. Therefore, our own sins, including bad psychological emotions and feelings, psychological struggles and disorders, addictions/bad coping, distorted attractions and gender confusion are NEVER a cross to be carrying while following Jesus; choosing to be Truth+Love+Virtuous and NOT sin, is.
The Cross is Truth+Love+Virtues.
To "carry our cross" is to seek and have the Truth and be Loving and Virtuous in response to others sins which does NOT cause our bad psychological emotions and feelings. Having Truth+Love+Virtues minimizes and prevents our bad psychological emotions and feelings!
If we don't experience this as reality, it's because we don't want the Truth and fail to have the Truth, while we think we already do, and don't want to be Loving+Virtuous and don't know how to be Loving+Virtuous, while we think we already are. Aka we are failing to "carry our cross".
Bottom Line: Wanting to "deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Christ", means choosing Truth+Love+Virtues instead of your interior and exterior sins; which means choosing to actively work toward becoming perfectly Loving in imitation of Christ Jesus both interiorly and exteriorly.
The first step is to learn how. Ask The Divine daily to show you. And learn how through the LHP Method©, "10 Steps to Lasting Healing"©
