Almost every day will have a problem, a trial, or a conflict of some sort, and many days will have a bunch of them. None of us likes problems because they are always painful. When they come we try to figure out a solution and we also try to understand the cause. What or who caused this situation that is messing up or semi messing up my life. None of us get very old before our ability to figure out the cause of our problems and trials is mostly gone. And once we have lost the ability to figure out the cause we won’t be able to come up with a solution that works either.

Our strong desire to protect ourselves and to build our own self-worth blocks our ability to own very much of the responsibility for the cause of our problem. If we do take some of the blame we will usually justify or excuse what we did or said. But we easily blame others, giving them full credit for our difficult situations. This practice of self-deception grows stronger and more automatic as we continue doing it with no attempt at self-discovery and humility. This has been the usual way of dealing with trials, relational problems, and failures since Adam and Eve.

Wisdom is the ability to solve problems, but most people stay fools because of their self-deception that they are in.

What is needed is an honest, humble, and earnest pursuit of self-awareness. As we work at being honest with ourselves and owning and confessing our sins we will gradually escape the jail of self-deception, and then we can really grow.