Our operative God image is often a subtle combination of our mom and our dad and/or any other significant authority figures. Once we begin an inner life of prayer and in-depth study of sacred texts, we slowly begin to grow, and from then on it only gets better.
Grace does its work and creates a unique “work of art” (Ephesians 2:10). Most early “God talk”—without self-knowledge and inner journey—is largely a sincere pretense, even to the person who consciously believes the language (see teachings of Socrates, Teresa of Avila, Carl Jung).
The miracle of grace and true prayer is that they invade the unconscious mind and heart (where our real truth lies)—and thus really change us! It invades them so much that the love of God and the love of self invariably proceed forward together. On the practical level, they are experienced as the same thing! Adapted from Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality, pp. 162-163
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