BP8
On April 14, 1912, four days into the maiden voyage of the Titanic, the unthinkable happened to the vessel that had been deemed unsinkable: The White Star Line passenger ship collided with an iceberg.
The ghost berg that appeared out of the midnight darkness was estimated at 100 feet high and maybe 250 feet long—not very big when one considers that some icebergs can attain the size of Belgium or Rhode Island. However, the floating mini-mountain was lethal enough that it tore a gash in the hull of the Titanic approximately 240 feet long.
The brand-new ship considered indestructible even though it was constructed with weaker, iron rivets in the bow as opposed to steel rivets, sank in 160 minutes. 1,517 people died in the 28-degree water. The disaster happened even after ship Captain Edward John Smith had purportedly claimed that not even God could sink the Titanic.
All because an iceberg drifting across the North Atlantic ripped it open beneath the water line.
At 11:40 on that April night, the lookouts in the crow’s nest of the Titanic had a difficult time seeing even the ‘tip’ of the iceberg above the water. There was no way they were going to spot the jagged submerged spur of the iceberg that was about to rip open their ship and send over 1,500 people to an icy grave.
Do you remember what you’ve always heard about an iceberg—that only 10% of it is above the water while 90% of it (the volume, that is) lurks beneath the water?
That means that the iceberg the Titanic sideswiped was probably around 300 feet wide beneath the water and maybe 750 feet deep. One football field wide and two and a half football fields deep. Not as large as Belgium but still a sizeable floating boulder! So much of it hidden. So much submerged.
Here’s an unusual thought: Did you ever think about yourself as an iceberg floating through the arctic waters of life? Have you ever wondered how much of you is hidden beneath the surface in a submerged place where others can’t see you and maybe not even you can see you? 50%? 95%? Is it possible there are jagged parts of you beyond your awareness that could gouge others and tear gashes into the hulls of their hearts?
The Austrian psychologist, Sigmund Freud, was in his mid-fifties when the Titanic sank. Interestingly, he used the metaphor of an iceberg to describe the three levels of the human mind.
The tip of the iceberg/mind he referred to as the conscious while the part just beneath the surface/waterline he called the preconscious. The content of the preconscious mind could potentially be accessed and brought into awareness.
The third part of the mind he referred to as the unconscious—the deepest region that was totally outside conscious awareness. It contained feelings, urges, thoughts and memories that are unpleasant or possibly even unwanted by the individual. Deep pain, conflict and anxiety reside in this submerged portion of the mind/iceberg.
Although I part ways with Freud on many of his thoughts that flowed out of a mind divorced from God, I see merit in his iceberg metaphor of the human mind. It runs parallel with what blog post 7 (BP7) referred to, namely, the three responses to Presence: the Well (and bucket), the Volcano and the Leakage.
The Well could be Freud’s conscious mind, the Volcano could be similar to the preconscious and the Leakage could resemble the unconscious.
The main point I wish to make here is that human beings—whether we refer to the mind, heart or soul—are like icebergs in that much of us is submerged under the water, beneath consciousness, shut away in a secret hiding place. Apparently, we are hiding from God and from other people.
But are we also hiding from our own selves? Even Freud would say that we are hiding many things in the unconscious depths of our mind.
So, why are we hiding and what are we hiding in the submerged parts of our selves?
As was mentioned in BP7, God designed humans to experience His Presence, to be in an intimate relationship with Him, to be known by Him and others, to be loved and to love. However, our Terrible Rebellion in the garden introduced distortion, separation and divorce into our relationship with our Creator and others.
In Genesis, we read that Adam and Eve ate the fruit Satan promised would make them like God. As a result of their disobedience to their loving Creator, the first two human beings experienced guilt and a sense of badness for the first time ever. They were ashamed of their nakedness, and donned fig leaves to hide themselves.
Do you remember how the first man and woman responded to God after they had disobeyed Him? Yes, they hid from Him in the garden. They thought they could escape from the One who sees all.
Thus began the time of the iceberg–the age of submerged, hidden and dark things. Total transparency and the true self were replaced by fleeing from God and living out of the false self.
You see, whenever we sin, the knee jerk reaction is to cover it up, to put on a mask and look like we’re fine on the surface.
Have you ever wondered what the person you work with or go to school with is hiding behind his or her mask called the human face? We rarely know because humans are so good at covering things up. We never know what goes on behind closed doors–the closed doors of a house or a heart.
This is where Freud comes in again. The Austrian psychologist claimed that humans are basically animals, accidental creatures (zombies) in a godless world motivated only by biological drives/desires. Do you remember his concept of the Id, the part of the tripartite human self that wants what it wants, when it wants it, and nobody better get in the way or they’ll get run over?
As animals here by blind accident, humans are only bodies with no soul, according to Freud. The hallmark of our existence on this planet is the using of others to satisfy our biological desires. Our main or sole priority in this world is to satisfy our need for water, food, sleep, sex and stimulation of our biological chemistry in any way we can get away with.
In Freud’s theory, people aren’t the end goal of relationships. Not at all. They’re only a means to an end. Biological desires are the primary aim in this world. We use others to get these desires fulfilled.
Do we see this manipulation of others manifested in our current world?
I think so. The selfish, godless spirit of the Id permeates many of the movies we make. Mr. Hyde shows up in domestic violence, rape and all other types of abuse. The beast within us will criticize, condemn, be prejudiced against and use those around us for our selfish ends. Others may even serve as scapegoats for our badness.
Apart from a miraculous intervention from the outside, humans are very capable of functioning like Freud’s animals that seek to gratify desires, experience pleasure and feel good. In fact, east of Eden, it’s our default position to pursue our desires instead of obedience to God.
Okay, we may love others at times. But how often do we love people around us primarily because of what they do for us or provide for us or how they make us feel? We love them for the functions they provide—even if it’s to caretake our fragile egos by walking on eggshells around us.
As soon as others cease to give us what we want, we are irritable and ready to seek plan B even to the point of separation and divorce.
Bridges are burned and loyalties are severed.
Even with parents and siblings, sons and daughters. Not to mention spouses of twenty years and more.
Believe it or not, Freud’s description of the humanity apart from God is consistent with what the Bible says. When we try to do life without God, we become something less than what we were meant to be.
God’s word says that many of men and women “profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable [ouch], disobedient [ugh], unfit for any good work.” (Titus 1:16)
All of us, when we turn our backs on God and flee from His Presence, are reduced. We fall from our original position of intimate friendship with God and are left to fill the subsequent emptiness in us with unsatisfying counterfeits.
Biological desires usurp the healthy place of love and Presence. The Id rules.
In addition to being far from God, we are left to face the guilt and shame we experience when we disobey our perfect heavenly Father. The Well of transparent communication is blocked by our waywardness. We are alienated from God’s Presence and from those around us.
Because we are separated from even our own hearts, we come out sideways. The Volcano explodes and the Leakage seeps out as we hide the guilt that results from our attempts to fill the emptiness inside with false things; with created things instead of the Creator.
Unlike Freud, the Bible says that relationships are the goal of life, not simply the means to an end. God doesn’t want us to settle for the tip of the iceberg—for fleeting biological gratification–when we were designed from the beginning for deep relationships and true love.
So, what can you take away from this post in way of practical application?
Even as those who may love Jesus and desire to obey Him, we are yet plagued by an iceberg part of ourselves hidden beneath the water, outside of our awareness. No wonder Jesus commanded us to examine ourselves to see what’s going on inside our hearts.
Thankfully, His Holy Spirit serves as a counselor to us as we seek to clean the inside of the cup.
Be aware of the Leakage in your life—spiritual, relational and psychological symptoms that indicate that something is not yet whole in the subterranean cave system of your heart. Or that something is hidden. The submerged self that the Holy Spirit is increasingly making new may still have some sharp edges to it that rip against the hearts of others.
Spiritually, we deal with the consequences of disobedience and defiance against Jesus. Be aware of the Leakage that betrays our jealousy, love of money, dishonesty, anger, bitterness, lust, condemnation of others, and idolatry.
Psychologically, we encounter symptoms of mental illness that leak up from the submerged self. This leakage may have been set in motion by the sins of others against us. But it is also promoted by the coping skills we chose to deal with the pain and fear and inner rage.
Be sure to get at the roots of anxiety, depression, and personality disorder characteristics that seep out in hypersensitivity to hurt, quick anger against others who do not respond well to our control and the psychological destruction of others who do not become what we demand they become.
So, pay attention to the Leakage in your life. These symptoms are pointing to the fractures in your experience of Presence with God, others and yourself.
If you’re a believer in Jesus, if you know Him and His Presence as the most precious thing in your life, then it’s easier to look inside because you know that you’re loved unconditionally, no matter what comes up through the Well.
So, the question lies before you: Are you willing to look inside and open the door of your heart fully to Jesus and to those around you? Seek His Presence and He will transform the rebel within you into a lover of God and others, and the false self into the true self He created before Eden.
He will raise the iceberg of your hidden self to the surface so you can be loved, known and grown.
Next time, we’ll look more closely at how to interpret the Leakage that’s seeping from your heart and how to replace it with the Well of Presence.
But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life ~ John 4:14
If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’ ~ John 7:37-38