If what God says is the truest thing about us, then it makes sense to follow him and accept our condition as the starting point. Thomas Merton said, 'The reason we never enter into the deepest reality of our relationship with God is that we so seldom acknowledge our utter nothingness before him.' If we confess the truth about ourselves, there's every reason to fear God will say, 'Yeah, that's right; and thing...' and we're fairly sure there will be another thing. We are like people afraid to tell the doctor where we really hurt because we fear we may be sicker than we think
Brennan Manning emphasizes the importance of recognizing our true selves in relation to God. If we accept what God says about us as the ultimate truth, we can begin our spiritual journey from an honest starting point. This notion suggests that acknowledging our vulnerabilities and flaws is crucial in developing a deeper relationship with the divine.
Manning references Thomas Merton's insight about our reluctance to confront our own nothingness before God. Many of us fear that if we truly confess our shortcomings, we will only receive more difficult truths. This fear often paralyzes us, much like patients hesitant to reveal their deepest pains to a doctor, worrying that the diagnosis might be worse than they imagined.
