Life is a challenging journey from the victimhood of our false self, based in fear and shame, to the discovery of our true self, based in love and gratitude.

Each day in this devotional includes a scripture, an inspirational quote and an excerpt from one of my books: In Search of the Heart, Shattering the Gods Within, Contemplation: Intimacy in a Distant World and Shame: The Human Nemesis. I invite you to come, read, and be still. If you are hurting badly inside, it will be difficult, but I challenge you to write your own reflections on what it means to discover your authentic self. As you reread the devotional each year, adding to your reflections, you will develop a deeper awareness of your soul, your true self. As you embrace your inner life, you will become a missionary to your own heart.

In the words of St. Paul:

"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be opened so that you may know the hope of your calling, the riches of his glorious inheritance, and the power of God's love dwelling in you" (Eph. 1:17).

Marcel Proust wrote, "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes."

Modern life with its urgent time pressures and burgeoning technologies leaves us disillusioned and disconnected from ourselves, each other and nature. As a result, we tend to create a world where friends walk as strangers and strangers as friends. Paraphrasing Georgia O'Keeffe:

No one sees a flower
No one makes a friend.
To see a flower
Takes time.
To make a friend
Takes time.
And . . .we have no time.

It is easy to blame our predicament on external circumstances and forget the words of the wisdom writer: "Guard your heart for out of it comes the issues of your life" (Prov. 4:23). Sadly, the heart, like a sponge, absorbs the hurt and shame of our lives. Unless we release the pain, there is no space in our heart for love.

Facing shame, which I define as Self Hatred Aimed at ME, is not easy because shame buries our authentic self encouraging us to live our lives out of an illusory false self. As we age, this false self becomes more entrenched making us puppets of our external reality and circumstances. As a result, we follow the shadow rather than the substance of our existence.

Our greatest challenge and hope is to face our hurt and shame and open our hearts to the eternal "love which never lets us go and the face which never turns away." Only in silence and stillness will we discover the vision of our authentic self filled with love, gratitude and forgiveness. As the Psalmist wrote, "Be still and know that I am God" (Ps 46:10).

Contact Information:

Dr. David F. Allen
The Renascence Institute
P.O. Box SP 63124 Sandyport
Nassau, The Bahamas

dfallen43@gmail.com
(301) 969-2192 or (242) 327-8719

About the Author: David F. Allen, MD, MPH is the director of the Renascence Institute, Nassau, Bahamas where his team of psychoanalysts and therapists serve an international clientele specializing in marital therapy, depression, grief, addictions and crisis management. He hosts weekly radio and television shows in the Bahamas, "People Helping People" and "Coming Home to Face Our Heart." He is also a popular conference and seminar speaker for many diverse organizations and churches including Dallas Bible Church in Texas, St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Church in Washington, D.C. and annual lectures at the Chautauqua Institute, Chautauqua, NY. His books include Daily Discovery: A Devotional, Crack the Broken Promise, Shame: The Human Nemesis, In Search of the Heart, Shattering the Gods Within, Contemplation: Intimacy in a Distant World, Pudgy: A Bahamian Parable and an award-winning DVD version of Pudgy. Dr. Allen was trained in medicine at St. Andrews University Medical School in Scotland and in Psychiatry and Public Health at Harvard Medical School where he was a Kennedy Fellow. He also did work in religion, psychiatry, and ethics at Harvard Divinity School. Dr. Francis Schaeffer was his mentor in theology at L'Abri Fellowship in Switzerland. He studied psychiatry and spirituality under Fr. Henri Nouwen at Yale Divinity School and contemplative psychology under Dr. Gerald May at Shalem Institute in Bethesda, Md. He has also taught psychiatry and religion at Harvard, Yale, and Georgetown Medical School. Dr. Allen has established drug and alcohol treatment clinics in Washington, D.C. and Nassau, Bahamas. He was one of the authors of a groundbreaking scientific article in The Lancet, June 1986, which heralded the coming crack cocaine epidemic. A PBS special called "The Drug Wars" featured Dr. Allen and documented his identification of the crack cocaine epidemic in 1985. Awards and honors include the RB Bennett Commonwealth Prize by the Royal Society of Arts in London for his international contribution in the field of cocaine addiction and treatment, voted one of the most outstanding psychiatrists for 2002-03, named a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association in 2008. David lives in his native Bahamas with his wife, Victoria, who is an author and Associate Professor at the College of the Bahamas. Their home on the Bahamian sea is full of love and the Real Presence of Christ. Most of all, they enjoy living near their children and grandchildren.