Ego Driven Vs. Authentic God Experience

Wanting to be thought holy, special, right, safe, or on higher moral ground has a deep narcissistic appeal to the human ego. These false motivations are, ironically, the surest ways to actually avoid God--all the while using much God talk and ritualized behavior.

The great irony of faith is that authentic God experience does indeed make you know you are quite special, favorite, and chosen--but you realize others are too! That is the giveaway that your experience is authentic, although it might take a while to get there.

Small souls are incapable of knowing a great God, and great souls are never satisfied with a small or stingy God.

Seeming absence, ironically, becomes the deepest recognition of presence, because it is thus awaited and needed.

Richard Rohr, Eager to Love, 2014