Another word for indifference is freedom. Ignatius says that to make good decisions, we must try to be free from personal preferences, societal expectations, fear of poverty and loneliness, desire for fame and honor, and anything else that stands in the way of the choice that will best serve God and bring us true happiness. These are the disordered attachments that Ignatius wants us to be free of. . . .
Usually, it’s quite difficult to sort out the confusing muddle of ordered and disordered attachments that most of us live with. When does a desire to be liked and complimented become abnormal vanity? I need money to live; I have a mortgage and a car that’s breaking down. I’d also like some new clothes, a remodeled kitchen, and a vacation. How much more money do I need? What I am I willing to do to get it? We begin to answer these difficult questions by starting from a position of freedom—detachment from any particular outcome, from other people’s ideas of the good life, from considerations of how someone like you should act.
—Excerpted from God Finds Us by Jim Manney
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