Shadow Lands

I watched two movies this weekend, “the social network” and “Enid”.

At the same time I am reading “Overcoming the Dark side of Leadership” by Gary L. McIntosh and Samuel D. Rima.

I have been struck by a quote from Carl Jung:

The brighter the persona, the darker the shadow.

I am seeing more and more that with a few notable exceptions, many of the people who shine brightly in the world have extremely dark shadows that they either have to hide or find a way to wrestle for their whole lives.

I loved Enid Bylton’s books growing up, however the worlds she created of adventure and love and friendship were a far cry from her own life. She was so self centered that it would not be far from the mark to call her evil.

Mark Zuckerberg was not as twisted at Blyton, but it is clear that his ambition and drivenness led to a loss of real friends, at least as he was portrayed in the movie.

Both stories are examples of the shadow that taints the brightness.

The Apostle Paul, too, had a dark side. One of the passages I quote fairly often makes it clear:

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. (Romans 7:14-15 (NIV))

I think one of the reasons I quote this passage is that I can identify so closely with it.

While part of me loves Paul’s raw honesty, I also acknowledge that there is a trap for me here. It is tempting to say, “oh well I am human, I will keep sinning”, and move to a kind of self acceptance that allows me a level of equilibrium but doesn’t challenge me to the wrestle with the shadow.

My mother writes a daily devotional reflection which is sent out to subscribers by email (you can subscribe at lifeunderstanding.com), and in a recent one she quoted Austrian author and Pyschiatrist Victor Frankl:

“I consider it a dangerous misconception of mental hygiene to assume that what man needs in the first place is equilibrium, a tensionless state! What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him.”

I realized that one of the great challenges for all of us is that we can fill our lives with external goals and agendas to occupy our time, often as a result of the drives that come from shadow, but never so the work to face and wrestle those drives.

Jesus doesn’t call me to equilibrium, he calls me into the stress of growth and discovery.