Spaciousness
"If we do not fill our minds with guilt and self-recriminations, we will recognize our incompleteness as a kind of spaciousness into which we can welcome the flow of grace. We can think of our inadequacies as terrible defects, if we want, and hate ourselves. But we can also think of them affirmatively, as doorways through which the power of grace can enter our lives. Then we may begin to appreciate our inherent, God-given lovableness."
--Gerald May, Addiction and Grace, 31
This, of course, only works if we preach the Gospel to ourselves. We can only avoid guilt and condemnation if we a) deny the weight of our wrongdoing and idolatry and claim that we have no sin ("it's not a big deal!"); or b) accept that God "made Him who knew no sin to become sin, in order that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Cor 5:21)
So to deal honestly with our defects/idolatries without hating ourselves, we need Christ.
