1. Big Idea #3
Attachment Filters
2P8225
Spiritual
Formation

2. Gut Level Memories as Attachment Filters
Semantic memory – verbal information packaged in words.
Autobiographical memory – your own “story” from the past.
These are conscious memory.

3. …Gut Level Memories as Attachment Filters
Gut level memory is non-conscious.
Gut level memory consists of emotions, perceptions, sensations, and a corresponding pattern for responding.
Patterns become attachment “filters” – organized strategies for relating.
Our memories of relational experiences with important figures in our lives shape how we feel about ourselves, others and God, which in turn influences how we act and relate in the present.

4. God is one of our attachment figures
And we tend to relate to God through the same attachment filters that we use with others.
Imagine that God begins thinking about you. What do you assume God feels about you when you come to His mind?
The answer will give you some clues as to what your attachment filter is.

5. A.W. Tozer
“Our real idea of God may lie buried under the rubbish of conventional religious notions and may require an intelligent and vigorous search before it is finally unearthed and exposed for what it is.
Only after an ordeal of painful self-probing are we likely to discover what we actually believe about God.”

6. The Spiritual Transformation Inventory
Tozer realizes that self-probing is a necessary part of spiritual growth.
The Spiritual Transformation Inventory which you have just completed is guided self-probing.

7. Spiritual Transformation
Spiritual transformation involves your two God-stories (the verbal story and the gut level “in the moment” or “between the lines” story) becoming more consistent, more congruent.
We need to pay attention to our “between the line” stories.

8. …Spiritual Transformation
That is how the question, “What feelings does this passage awaken in me?” can help us in our journaling routine.
The question helps us be aware of the connectedness or dis-connectedness of our two ways of knowing, and can help us bring them together.

9. Types of Attachment Filters

10. Three Attachment Filters
SECURE –people in my life will be responsive and helpful to me when I need them.
DISTANT – people will not be interested or responsive to me when I need them. (two kinds of DISTANT – dismissing and pre-occupied)
ANXIOUS – people may be interested, but will not be reliable or available when I need them.
SECURE = positive view of self, positive view of others
DISTANT (dismissing) = positive toward self, negative toward others
DISTANT (pre-occupied) = negative toward self, positive toward others
ANXIOUS = negative toward self, negative toward others

11. Other Attachment Filters…
The Happy Pharisee
The Disillusioned Cynic
The Frustrated Labourer

12. The Happy Pharisee has his life all together and working well.
believes he has all the resources to get what he wants in life.
in order to survive or look successful, he pretends to want less than what he really wants.
this person believes there is a "finish line" to get to in life. ("I've got to make it.")

13. The Disillusioned Cynic
has become cynical because life has not worked out.
God "has not come through".
does not want to live in his pain, and is angry that God has not removed it.
has more passion than the happy pharisee; more likely to find answers, healing.
does not see any "finish line" to life, or even a starting point.

14. The Frustrated Labourer
is often committed to taking in many self-help seminars or reading many self-help books.
has a higher interest in keeping up with fads and trends.
feels a lot of pressure and frustration from working so hard to be together.
prone to many psychosomatic and neurotic problems. (fear, anxiety, physical ailments)

15. Discussion Thread Question
Imagine that God begins thinking about you. What do you assume God feels about you when you come to His mind? Write down your thoughts.
Then go back to slide 10 and review the three main types of attachment filters described there (secure, distant, anxious), and also the three styles of relating described (Happy Pharisee, Disillusioned Cynic, Frustrated Labourer )
Can you identify the attachment filters that you have tended to use in your life? Or can you identify one that someone close to you has used in their life? Can you see any traces of the Happy Pharisee? The Disillusioned Cynic? The Frustrated Labourer? Comment on what you notice.