One Catholic Priest has called the Christian Season of Lent a time for “divine therapy”.  Lent is a time during which the Christian goes on a kind of divine retreat to learn more about basic human instinct.  It is basic human instinct that is at the heart of our lives; human instinct deeply influences our lives from birth.  Basic human instinct can unconsciously, and sometimes consciously, influence our conduct, our thoughts, our feelings and our beliefs.  Lent is a time of personal reflection.  In Lent we come to know how these basic instincts have influenced our lives. This is a time when we face those emotions from which spiritual and psychological pain derives.  Feeling of shame, anger, greed or humiliation can invite us to look at our lives closely, from life’s earliest moments.  Depending on whether our basic instincts were unduly gratified or frustrated gives us a clue to understanding how we have satisfied our wants.  To satisfy our instincts too much may lead to an inflated sense of self-exaltation to think our wants should be satisfied all the time with no sense of the frustrations which arise naturally when we cannot satisfy those wants. This frustration, which we think is unfair, often leads us to shame that we were deprived of something we deserve or anger that it was not forthcoming.  Depression sets in as a strong after effect to calm those feelings of anger and frustration about which we feel ashamed.

Temptations, and how we handle them, are deeply related to our sense of personal identify, i.e., how we think and understand ourselves, what we believe and how we behave.  Our deepest instincts from birth and how they are channeled and shaped strongly influence how we understand ourselves and interact with others.  For the Christian, and similarly in other religious traditions, a right relationship with God or with the ultimate is the goal of identity and where the temptation, if you will, should lead.  Temptation away from the good and the moral for many is the work of the tempter/ the devil.  Each decision that we make and each experience that we have offers the opportunity to set a course, make a choice, and go one way or the other.  Each decision presents the opportunity to gain a greater awareness of our self, and therefore of our identity.  This opportunity can open the door to greater and more mature personhood or to a view that thinks less of oneself and may fall prey to the tempter, seduced by a choice that may over exalt one self in a way that challenges a sense of responsibility to others.

The greatest temptation is to put one self first.  The biggest myth about psychotherapy is that it is totally “me” focused so as to grow narcissism in an overly indulgent manner.  Rather, the best in pastoral psychotherapy, and the route, which the Judeo-Christian tradition lays out for its adherents, is to love God, and neighbor and oneself; by doing then  love of self and neighbor is on an equal footing.  Temptation so often reveals that deeper instinctual nature of human identity as to place one’s self above and over the neighbor.  The sense of love and purpose that is the holding environment of the Judeo-Christian tradition becomes limited by the overly attentive or exclusive focus on the self.

There is a place in faith for times and moments of reflection.  It may be Lent for the Christian.  But, just as examples, both Judaism and Islam hold up special times of personal contemplation as well.  The kinds of temptations that arise can either arise from within the self or evoke  responses from the self that may be less mature,  limited by the choices, which come up in human experience.  Life experiences which can confuse identity, strain relationships, limit one in their own self perspective can all reduce the breadth of perspective needed to be adequately responsible for self and others.  These conflicts which lead to choices of a negative moral consequence can also open the possibility for increased personal growth and at the same time the sense of the sacred goal and direction of one’s life.

The Christian term for this kind of in depth prayer and attention to one self is repentance, where you turn around your life.  The emotional and behavioral aspects of this are often  what leads to a breakthrough in an otherwise stuck relationship, invites movement out of a deep depression to a more solid and hopeful life grounded in faith and purpose,  to a reduction of anxiety and anxiety induced behavior as you grow in the strength to understand what it is underneath that tears at the core of holding up your identity as good in itself, valued and loved and of sacred worth.  Jesus showed himself in his behavior with the devil in the wilderness his willingness to be an ally with his brothers and sisters, fellow human beings, as they travel life’s road with these struggles of temptation.  The church and the religious communities are those allies for their congregants.  When the road is of such seriousness or depth the congregational religious leader or the pastoral psychotherapist may be called upon.  The temptations which we face serve to show us much about who we are and invite us to take the road to greater of love of other as well as self, which is the road to healing and wholeness.

Dr. Paul Melrose is Director of Clinical Services at the Samaritan Counseling Center of SE Michigan and therapist at the Milford Office.  He is Parish Assistant at the Milford Presbyterian Church.   He can be reached at www.paulmelrose.com or at 248-474-4701.  He can also be reached at pjmelrose@aol.com

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