In addition to being ‘street smart’, those of us who live within contemporary Western civilization require the vocabulary of both psychology and theology if we are to articulate steady ‘truths’ to live by. Here is an example of how complimentary these two disciplines can be. It mandates the use of both sides of one’s brain.

Under everyone’s hard shell is someone who wants to be appreciated and loved. Psychology has shown that each of us has three underpinning personal needs that are present from birth. These include the need for Survival & Security, Affection & Esteem, and Power & Control. Parents know that during early childhood a child will do whatever it takes to get these personal needs met. However, they are never perfectly met, even by the best of parents. Only a relationship with God can perfectly meet them. Children can initially only relate to God through their parents…who are clearly not deity. As a result, one’s craving to have these needs met during childhood ‘programs’ us into unnatural ‘broken’ behavior patterns. This has been coined The Human Condition. These patterns of behavior are later lived out and reinforced as we become adults.

This Human Condition is the source of our ‘ego’. Someone from the ‘theology’ side has turned the word ‘ego’ into an acronym, ‘Edging God Out’. It is as if we have damned up the river of life’s happiness with the boulders of what the ‘psychology’ side calls our ‘false self’. This false self keeps us from seeing God, who is there all along. Instead, we seek to find happiness in all the wrong places, planting seeds along the way that produce a weed filled life.

The good news is that the human garden comes with a lifetime warranty to be (almost fully) repaired. Psychology and theology are integrated in the person of theology’s Great Physician who also has a doctorate in psychiatry. In addition, the Great Physician also comes armed with the Holy Spirit.

It is my perception that the Holy Spirit functions initially through our subconscious minds, a part of us science was not even aware of until the last century. Thus the phrase, “The kingdom of God is within you.” God is everywhere and God is also within one’s subconscious; so God – with one’s intentional consent, in the silence between one’s thoughts, and through the knowledge found in the wisdom of the Bible and through others who exude His presence – is able to directly break through to your conscious mind, enter into a personal relationship, and empower you to interact with His will and love on a conscious level. This, if given the chance, will result in a transformation over time from the Human Condition to a new condition that exhibits the ‘fruit of the Spirit’, including love, joy, peace, etc. The unnatural ‘broken’ patterns of behavior are deprogrammed and replaced with one’s ‘true self’. And THAT is the life you really want and deserve to have, a weedless garden.

Note that we are all ‘exceptions’. The only two human beings who ever lived a ‘normal’ life were Adam and Eve – before they were tossed out of the Garden of Eden! Jesus never experienced the Human Condition because he had a direct relationship with the Father. He was without ego.