"Sacred Attachment" (Michael John Cusick)

TITLE: Sacred Attachment: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love
AUTHOR: Michael John Cusick
PUBLISHER: Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2025, (192 pages).

Embodied living by faith is better than explanations about faith. The experience transcends knowledge. Feeling loved is far better than talking about love. Information does not necessarily lead to spiritual formation. We can try hard to grow spiritually but become frustrated at the lack of progress. The key thesis of this book is that divine growth comes from a combination of feeling loved and trusting God. The former comes from being seen, soothed, feeling safe and secure. The latter flows out from the results of the 4S paradigm. This 4S sequence is the essence of the author's "Sacred Attachment." Beginning with being SEEN, we are reminded that God sees us, either directly or via the communities we are in. Being seen virtually means we are understood as we hear the words "I get you." This stage lays the foundation of being SOOTHED where God or our carer(s) say to us: "I've got you." The third stage is SAFE (I've got this) and the final stage is SECURE (Love has me). Author Michael John Cusick believes that these 4S encapsulate our emotional needs and human longings. It sets out for us the path toward Sacred Attachment. Using attachment theory, Cusick believes that spiritual growth is best cultivated when our "immature infant brain" gets attached to a "mature adult brain," so that we can better organize and regulate the way we learn and grow. Our limitations stem from a false paradigm that as long as we do the right things, we will naturally grow. We often believe lies about ourselves or our capabilities. We trust ourselves more than God. Our self-dependence leads us toward the perfectionism trap while Cusick reminds us about the superiority of Hebrew wisdom over Greek philosophy. Using Brain McLaren's words, he affirms that "Hebrew good is better than Greek perfect." Once we recognize our human limitations, that we are broken but not bad, we are ready to turn the page toward confession. Here, Cusick gives us the 5Ws to show us how these affect the way we attach to God. These 5Ws are:

• Wretchedness: We are in exile and we need to find a way back to God as our home.
• Weakness: Own our weaknesses and accept our limitations.
• Woundedness: Have we become overly defensive that we fail to recognize our wounds?
• Warfare: Take up arms to fight the lies around us.
• Wiring: Recognize our form and learn about our own genetics and biological makeup.

Cusick puts together a helpful table to show us the intersection between the 4S and the 5Ws. Understanding this is the key to escaping spiritual exhaustion, which forms the first part of the book. The second part stems from this understanding as we grow our trust in divine love. 

My Thoughts
First, this book combines psychology and spirituality. This book is based on the premise of attachment science, to take us back to the roots of our human makeup. The author recognizes the good intentions of many believers who want to grow spiritually but often find their attempts frustrated. Instead of knowledge accumulation or dependence on set external spiritual methodologies, Cusick takes us back to the roots of personhood and our need to be seen, and soothed, and to be safe and secure. Some readers might question the premise of using attachment science and neuroscience to guide one toward authentic spirituality. This is a subset of the never-ending debate between science and faith. The key to accepting the author's approach is to let Truth lead and guide us. One reminder from the author is about the lies that we believe or others say about us. As long as the Bible is our template and measure of Truth, we can see all other methodologies through God's lens.

Second, this book is best suited for those who have earnestly tried but honestly failed. Written from his own experience with spiritual exhaustion and the many cases of Christians getting discouraged about their spiritual exercises, Cusick takes us back to what it means to be human. Many books about spiritual disciplines and practices tend to ignore our spiritual positions at any one time. They are often written in a generalized manner which does little to help those who need specialized guidance. This book takes us back to the way we have been wired with the assumption of us as infants. That is something we can all identify with. 

Finally, this book encourages us to press on with faith and hope from the position of being loved via the 4S. It gives us the needed shot to carry on working on our spiritual disciplines, this time with a better understanding of our limitations and weaknesses. The more we are aware of our need for the 4Ss, our acknowledgment of our 5Ws, and a renewed perspective of our Source for all things, we are on the way toward authentic experience and spiritual growth. While the author purports "Hebrew good as better than Greek perfect," this book's approach seems to be more Greek than Hebrew. Maybe, that is the way we have been wired in our present society. Perhaps, this is intentional. We work on the Greek side while we let God lead us on the Hebrew side. That way, none of us can ever claim that we grow toward God using our own strength and wisdom.

Michael John Cusick is the CEO and founder of Restoring the Soul, an intensive counseling ministry in Denver. He is a licensed professional counselor, spiritual director, and former assistant professor of counseling at Colorado Christian University. Michael is the author of Surfing for God, and his articles have appeared in such places as Relevant, Huffington Post, and Red Letter Christians. He and his wife, Julianne, have two grown children and live in Littleton, Colorado.

Rating: 4.25 stars out of 5.

conrade

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This book has been provided courtesy of InterVarsity Press via NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.