Archpriest Andrei Tkachev. Entering the church. The first stage: churching. (№ 404208)

When a person finds Christ, he finds himself, the real one. The real "I" peeks out from under the cortex, which is wrapped in a person. Finding yourself is a good thing: to reveal your hidden talents, your vocations and opportunities, to grow your personality.
In general, the theory of personal growth is a stolen idea from Christianity. Christianity is, in fact, the path of personal growth. Only not of isolated growth, but of growth in the community, in the Church, in union, in Eucharistic closeness with other people, in a prayerful bundle with God.
Personal growth in the understanding of modern psychology is holiness without God. An attempt to reveal your talents and talents, to achieve success and significance, to acquire some bright skills, in a word, to enter a state where you yourself are a little god. At least, there is a danger of reaching such a state: yes, I love myself like this, I like what is happening to me, I have blossomed in general, I am now doing something so powerful, everything around me is spinning, everything is moving - I succeed, I can! This is "be like gods" - what the devil offered to man in paradise. Eat - and be like gods.
But Christ also spoke, and in the psalms it is written: "I said: You are gods." What's the difference? That there was deception; do as I say, and be like gods. And the Lord here says real things: "You are gods," you are created in the image and likeness of God. You have the possibility of self-realization, in which you will go higher and higher, grow in the fullness laid down in you by God. And there is no need to quarrel with Him, on the contrary, in God you will find a source of strength and movement.
And the wrong option is when you will develop your talents and abilities and more and more narcissistic and Satan from the secret pride that you are good, you do so much, you are the best. For all the external similarities, these are diametrically opposed practices.