99. You Are Pleased with Me
R
I know that you are pleased with me,
for my enemy does not triumph over me.
In my integrity you uphold me
and set me in your presence forever.
Psalm 41:11–12I
’LLnever forget the day my friend (I’ll call her Samantha) confessed
to me that she was emotionally drained.
“I’m exhausted from trying to earn my parents’ approval,” she
said. “At some level I know they must love me. But when I strip away
the birthday presents and the outward expressions, I’m left with this
awful feeling in the pit of my stomach that there is something more
I need to do to earn a place for myself in their hearts.”
I wonder how many of us walk around every day with that same
uneasy feeling—that we still must justify our existence, not only to
our loved ones but perhaps to ourselves and even to God.
In his book Life of the Beloved,Henri Nouwen observed, “Self-
rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contra-
dicts the sacred voice that calls us the ‘Beloved.’ ”^1
In Psalm 41:11–12, David prayed with confidence, knowing that