“Detachment—dying to sin, and to temptations of the false-self—is hard work. It can be painful, and it can feel dangerous. The wilderness is not a safe place. But we don’t go there alone. Jesus, who himself was ministered to by angels during his wilderness encounters with the evil one, walks alongside us, his rod and his staff protecting and comforting us.
It’s helpful to remember the goal of detachment. This is not an eastern religious emptying for the sake of being empty. It is not a hair-shirt ascetic that values pain for pain’s sake. It is the path of life that Jesus modeled for us, a detaching from (sin and false-‐self) to make room for attaching to (God, and true-‐self fullness in him), a dying in order to live.”
Susan P. Currie, Director of Selah and Associate for Spiritual Formation, in Silencio, a resource of Leadership Transformations, Inc., March 2013.