{"id":235,"date":"2010-08-09T19:19:44","date_gmt":"2010-08-09T18:19:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.pender.org.uk\/?p=235"},"modified":"2011-08-26T11:45:58","modified_gmt":"2011-08-26T10:45:58","slug":"altar-ego","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pender.org.uk\/index.php\/2010\/08\/altar-ego\/","title":{"rendered":"Altar ego"},"content":{"rendered":"

But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. (Matthew 6:6)
<\/span>Holy Bible, New Living Translation
<\/span><\/h3>\n

There is no doubt about it, we are complex beings. It is a delight to know that we are all different, physically, emotionally, mentally. I am sure there are many people who are overjoyed that they are not like me, and I have to say that the feeling is probably reciprocal! But we are even more complex than that, because I know for one that I am even different from myself at times.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/a>

I am not what you think!<\/p><\/div>\n

Eh? What?<\/p>\n

Well, I am. I have an alter ego<\/strong><\/em>, another me. I have quite a few of them, actually, but – at the risk of getting really complicated and carrying this too far – I am sure I am not alone!<\/p>\n

There is an outside me<\/em>, and an inside me<\/em>, for instance. The person that people see is not the whole me, it is just the outside me<\/em>, the me that I want people to see, the me who smiles and is glad to see everyone. Then there is the inside me, <\/em>the me that wants to be alone. There is the good Christian me, <\/em>but then there is the bad sinner me <\/em> – I won’t elaborate on that one, you can do it! There is the thinking me<\/em> and the speaking me – <\/em>on a very few occasions these two actually coincide!<\/p>\n

There is a me<\/em> that perhaps even I don’t see, because there are parts of me I don’t want to see, or am too blind to see.<\/p>\n

But the Father sees them. He sees all the types of me<\/em>, he knows them and yet he still loves me!<\/p>\n

Why do I try to hide so much of me from you, from the people around me, even from myself? Even worse, why do I try to hide me <\/em>from the Father, my creator, my lover? Why do I so often go before him with my alter ego, the not me<\/em>? I have to go to him with my altar <\/strong>ego<\/em>, the one which is honest and true, the one which is neither concerned with what others might think, nor of what he might think, the me that my Father knows.<\/p>\n

Then he will reward me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. (Matthew 6:6) Holy Bible, New Living Translation There is no doubt about it, we are complex beings. It is a delight to know that we are…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[148,34,38,64,151,69,71,77],"class_list":["post-235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian","tag-alter-ego","tag-father","tag-god","tag-prayer","tag-risk","tag-sin","tag-sinner","tag-worry","category-5","description-off"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfWaLo-3N","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4531,"url":"https:\/\/pender.org.uk\/index.php\/2019\/05\/a-shadow-of-my-future-self\/","url_meta":{"origin":235,"position":0},"title":"A shadow of my future self","author":"Robert Pender","date":"01\/05\/2019","format":false,"excerpt":"[vc_row][vc_column width=\"1\/2\"][vc_single_image image=\"4532\" img_size=\"full\"][\/vc_column][vc_column width=\"1\/2\"][vc_column_text css=\"\"]Many years ago I had a very sore back. 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I arrived just in time, but after the interview\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christianity"","block_context":{"text":"Christianity","link":"https:\/\/pender.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/christian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7440,"url":"https:\/\/pender.org.uk\/index.php\/2023\/07\/24-the-lucky-phew\/","url_meta":{"origin":235,"position":4},"title":"24 – The Lucky Phew!","author":"Robert Pender","date":"25\/07\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=\"7441\" img_size=\"full\" alignment=\"center\"][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]I should have written this way back at the start of July, but things got in the way. In my last post I was saying that the CT scan had been delayed and that they had decided to extend my chemo a bit. 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