Description
“Have you fallen into the Messiah Trap? Are
you giving but never receiving, obeying but
never questioning, listening but never being
heard? The Messiah Trap allows no time for
personal pursuits, solitude, or fun. People
who fall into the Messiah Trap no longer have
the word no in their vocabularies. They feel
compelled to answer every call for help.”
Many of us attend church regularly and participate in
a variety of church committees, classes, and volunteer
tasks in addition to our responsibilities at home, to our
families, and to our employers. Feeling that there just
aren’t enough hours in the day, we may fall behind on
projects, let friends and family down, or become too
physically exhausted to accomplish anything at all.
If this happens, we’re apt to feel guilty, inadequate,
ashamed, or angry.
Loving Yourself as Your Neighbor explores this
destructive cycle of codependent behavior and
highlights the necessity of healthy self-love for balanced
Christian service. Building on Carmen Renee Berry’s
groundbreaking When Helping You Is Hurting Me
and combining case studies with sound theology and
psychology, the authors remind us that though the
Christian life is indeed one of service, there is a differ-
ence between the spiral of service based on love and
the cycfe of burnout experienced by the Christian caught
in the Messiah trap.
Berry and Taylor expose the unhealthy beliefs and
faulty assumptions tliat foster self-hate and addictive
helping — “If I don’t do it, it won’t get done”; “Every-
one else’s needs take priority over mine” and demon-
strate how Jesus’ teachings regarding self-denial and
self-sacrifice have been misinterpreted. With compassion
and empathy, they remind us that although the true
Messiah, Jesus Christ, saved humanity through self-
sacrifice, many of us confuse our calling to be “Christ-
like” with playing god in other people’s lives.
Our attempts to ‘save” the world imply that no one, not
even God, can do what we can do for others. We must
realize that trying to earn our worth is impossible and
unnecessary, for “God loves us as we are.”
Answer the question “Why am I so miserable
when I’m trying to do everything right?” Loving
Yourself as Your Neighbor gently guides us through
the steps toward believing fundamental self-love and
helps us to accept the love of those around us through
an accurate understanding and experience of God’s love
for us. The authors assure us that the Church can be
a community of love which enables us to be there for
ourselves as well as for others so that we can serve
and survive.
Hardcover. 144 pages. In very good preloved condition with the exception of a previous owner’s name, some handwritten notes neatly written inside on the back page of the book, and a carefully applied mylar cover held in place with tape (not ex-library as far as we can tell — just a previous owners handiwork).