Sacred Attachment Quotes

“Learning to experience the transformative power of love requires being known. In order to be known, you must learn to overcome the weight of your shame. Shame and hiddenness create distance from the love we long for and cripple us from being who we truly are. It's been that way from the beginning of humankind, and no technology, medical breakthrough, neurological discovery, or psychopharmaceutical can change this reality. We're intrinsically designed to need relationship, connection, and intimacy with other human beings.”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“We all want to be known and valued, but if we can minimize the risk of rejection or come up with a way to explain away others' indifference, then we hedge our bets. Because when we reveal ourselves and are not seen, valued, and known, the wound to our soul gushes with shame.”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“Holiness unites you with God. Wholeness invites you to surrender the shards and broken pieces of your life. Together, they dare you to discover that you are better broken.”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“So rather than suppressing, hiding, condemning, shaming, and numbing the parts of our stories we don't like or want to include, we discover how they become raw material for a new creation. This is the Jesus way.”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“Kintsugi makers do not hide the fractures or the past; they mend it to make it new. This is holiness. Holiness hides nothing. Discards nothing. Holiness is the energy of God making all things whole. Or wholly new.”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“The deepest desire of your heart is to be known-seen, soothed safe, and secure. So when you deny yourself your weakness, you deny yourself of being human. When you hold back your vulnerability, you hold back being known for who you really are. You may succeed at being known, wanted, and loved for what you can do and whom you please. But you won't be satisfied because you lack the unconditional, limitless, "of course, of course" kind of love for which you were designed.”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“Think of it this way. You came into the world and you were helpless. Dependent. Vulnerable. With loving, attuned parents or caregivers, your vulnerability provides the natural opportunity for secure attachment, for bonding and being known.”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“So I began to wonder, what if my out-of-control behavior was not the product of my depravity but the result of my brokenness?”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“Have you ever noticed in so many movies the way a main character regains consciousness in a hospital emergency room and then immediately yanks out the IV, heart monitor, and any other tubes or wires connected to them? That's our human tendency self-reliance, autonomy, independence. Only, unlike our cinematic heroes, we don't last long without those machines to do what we simply cannot do for ourselves. Our sinful proclivity to go it on our own pulls the plug on the spiritual ventilator we need in order to keep breathing. When we choose autonomy and independence, we cut ourselves off from what's necessary for our survival and healing”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“If you truly want to close the gap between what you believe and what you experience, then your body is your crucial companion. Why? Because it's the body-your nervous system shaped by a lifetime of experience-that cannot trust love.”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“It's much easier to cultivate anger and justification than grief and lament. If we're willing to seek healing for our wounds rather than resigning ourselves to them, and if we're willing to steward our vulnerabil- ities into connection with others instead of self-sufficiency, we will be on our way to experiencing wholeness.”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“Will we allow doubts and distrust to take root and flourish? Or will we move into greater wholeness by learning to trust, by inviting God and other people into the wilderness where we find ourselves far from home?”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“Evil fills the gap between our woundedness-all that has hurt us, disappointed us, been lost to us, injured us, abandoned us-and our wandering (sometimes referred to as sin), that longing to settle for fantasy rather than suffer for reality.”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“For many of us, our childhood home was a place of pain and loss and even trauma and unpredictability. A place you wanted to leave and never return. A place from which to escape. As a result, we separate from the deep longing for a good home, a safe shelter for our souls, a place of warmth, acceptance, and comfort. Consequently, we avoid dependency in connection. We cut off the need for others”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“When our eyes are open which usually happens only when we're spinning and disoriented-we begin to see the rhythm of the kingdom on every page in Scripture.”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“Evil is sustained by two essential lies. One is about God: you can't trust God to meet your needs. And the other lie is about who you are: it's up to you to meet your own needs so you must find a way”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“Rather than trusting God with our safety and security, we may unintentionally test him by claiming biblical verses or passages as promises for our present circumstances. Instead of finding that God meets us where we are-in the midst of our pain, shame, and discomfort-we may feel spiritually entitled to a smoother journey.”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“Evil likes to sound as close to the truth as possible. Evil will always present alternatives to meeting our deep needs and take us away from the vulnerability of love.”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“Consider for a moment that the most shameful, regretful, horrible things you've ever done in your life are not so easily labeled "sin." What if instead of viewing yourself as fundamentally sinful, you recognized your longings and needs (those Four Ss again) as good and holy and your failures, weaknesses, mistakes, and yes, even addictions as attempts to meet those needs based on how they have gone unmet in your life? As Aquinas said, every unhealthy behavior reflects a God-given appetite-an idea which took me years to understand.”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“If you've not been seen, soothed, safe, and secure growing up, then you will find it very difficult or it will seem impossible to know God and experience God as one who could possibly see you, soothe you, and keep you safe and secure.”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“Please listen carefully. The way we relate to our environment, events, and other people often results more from our past conditioning than our present choosing. Our early development and family of origin profoundly affected our nervous system, which determined whether we would have a secure attachment. And that wiring is the basis for trust, including trusting in divine love.”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“In addition to struggling with unmet longings and expectations, those in the gap also often struggle with something unwelcome. You have been hurt, betrayed, abandoned, used, manipulated, diminished, and deceived. You may be struggling with relational brokenness, sexuality, pornography, mental health, and addiction. You're disenchanted with the system of faith you were taught. You're no longer willing to wear religious masks or pretend you're doing better than you actually are. Instead of helping, your experiences with Christian faith have caused harm and pain.”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“Many of us know where we are, and we think we know what our desired outcome is. But we don't know how to get there. And we wonder if it's even possible.”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“Evil always seeks to destroy beauty and goodness with two lies—by deceiving us about who God is and who we are. Wickedness yields to temptation in order to experience what it lacks—assuming God can’t or won’t provide what feels necessary to live.”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“You cannot earn”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love

“If you want to experience being loved”
― Michael John Cusick, Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love