In the previous post, I wrote about what could be a difficult aspect of salvation for an introvert, especially someone that driven by their own understanding and accomplishments. But salvation isn’t the entire story, it’s only the very beginning of what will most likely be a long journey. Until you’re called to Heaven through death or other means, you’ve got to work out this whole relationship thing with God. And that, regardless of your personality, can be a daunting task, especially when it comes to dealing with our guilt and the truckload of other baggage we all travel with every day. Salvation only wipes the slate clean from the perspective of charges against you that prevent you from entering Heaven. Despite the emotional and spiritual high that most of us feel after the event, being saved hardly touches all the mess that we still carry.

Some are lucky and some of that baggage is removed, but for the intellectual introvert, the pain, memory and guilt of our past usually hits us in the face very abruptly shortly after the honeymoon phase is over. While it’s not quite the same as salvation, the introvert’s baggage isn’t going to go away through works or good deeds. If that were a possibility, the baggage wouldn’t be there to begin with.

So… We’re back to this relationship thing.

Luckily for the introvert, the most difficult part about a relationship is usually starting it, and this one is slightly different since an unusual level of trust has been built and established as a result of the salvation process. So, the one-on-one relationship part is a piece of cake for the introvert, creating practically ideal conditions for the only kind of pleasurable social interaction an introvert might experience. But, when you aren’t driven by your emotions or the interaction provided by a relationship, then the relationship is driven by the analytical and mental activities more than outward feeling and expressions. The problem with thoughts running wild more so than wild speech is that it becomes entirely too easy to “talk” your way out of pursuing the relationship because of the very pile of things you need the relationship to fix, all that baggage, guilt, and pain.

Instead of expressing the concerns, and opening up to allow God to work in us, we as introverts get guilt-driven and self-image-driven tunnel vision. Tunnel vision leads to distancing ourselves from God and irrational fears about our value. Justifications for our distance will then have to be made, which lead to one of two things, depression or building up delusionary walls of pride. It’s easy to be proud and ignore our faults, become our own god, as long as we don’t have to face the real God. And on the other end of the spectrum, we ignore the good around us and create a self-pitying echo chamber, devaluing and distancing ourselves more. It’s easy for us to ignore God, and his power, when we’ve made a god out of our problems.

The most difficult part of the post-honeymoon stage for a new Christian is dealing with all their other gods. For a self-empowered introvert, that means trying to kill the other gods off on our own. It usually takes us too long to realize that once the power is given to a god, you can’t overcome it without the power of a God. That’s why the relationship thing is still important. That’s why salvation is only the very beginning of the journey.