Thinking. Disillusionment

Me and Oswald Chambers are on the same page.

I was talking today to a friend about how I had just written something about disillusionment in a new project I've taken on.

It occurred to me that disillusionment is generally seen as something negative. We can get disillusioned by life's problems, or by someone we looked up to who didn't live up to our expectations.

But actually, disillusionment ought to be a positive thing because it leads to truth and reality.

Take a look at the word 'disillusion'.

Dis means: against or negative or reversal. That’s simple enough.

But illusion means: an erroneous (or wrong) perception of reality, an erroneous (or wrong) concept or belief, and the condition of being deceived by a false perception or belief.

Put the two together and disillusion means the opposite of having a wrong belief. So even though disillusion appears to be a negative word, it’s actually positive, because it means instead of having a wrong image of something (an illusion), you now have a truthful or a right image of something.

If (for example) disillusionment comes from the fact that someone has failed us, our illusion must be that that person should be good and right, even perfect.

So rather than focus on the bitterness and anger that comes with disillusionment, it's probably better to examine the illusion for what it really is, let it go and move on with a more accurate sense of reality. 

Anyway, back to Oswald Chambers. I was telling my friend about this, and her husband piped up, "Oh, you must have been reading Chambers."

"No," said I, "I made that one up myself!"

"Well, you're not an original then," he said and went on to show me in his 'Golden Book of Oswald Chambers' the devotional from July 30, which said pretty much the same thing in almost the exact same words.

Now if only I could take my own advice.