Hiding from Love (Paperback)

~ John Townsend (Author) "TO JENNY'S nine-year-old mind butterfly she gazed at was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen..." (more)
Key Phrases: hiding patterns, hiding styles, helpful hiding, Deep Woods, Officer Josef, Body of Christ (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Dr. John Townsend helps you to explore the hiding patterns you've developed in dealing with your emotions and guides you toward the healing grace and truth that God has built into safe, connected relationships.

From the Back Cover

When you experience emotional injury, fear, shame, or pride your first impulse is to hide the hurting parts of yourself from God, others, even yourself. Often you've learned these hiding patterns during childhood to protect yourself in a threatening environment. The problem is that when you hide your injuries and frailties, you isolate yourself from the very things you need in order to heal and mature. What served as protection for a child becomes a prison to an adult. In Hiding from Love, Dr. John Townsend helps you to explore thoroughly the hiding patterns you've developed and guides you toward the healing grace and truth that God has built into safe, connected relationships with himself and others. You'll discover: The difference between "good" and "bad" hiding, Why you hide the broken parts of your soul from the God who can heal them, How to be free to make mistakes without fear of exposing your failures and imperfections, How to obtain the joy and wholeness God intends you to have through healthy bonding with others. Hiding from Love will take you on a journey of discovery toward healing, connected relationships, and a new freedom and joy in living.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Zondervan (February 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0310201071
• ISBN-13: 978-0310201076
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #29,132 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Specific answers, not platitudes, July 26, 2004

By	DS (Oregon) - See all my reviews

I have read almost everything I can get my hands on to help me understand myself, my ex, and why it all went wrong. I finally feel like I understand why we have the defenses we do, and why it's so hard to snap out of it. The author combines years of solid experience working with people in real clinical situations with inspirational insight into issues of the heart in light of the Biblical understanding God gives us about how He created us. This book was rare for me, because it is solid and specific about why we are afraid to reach out and grasp what we most need to truly heal. I found it especially different because it addresses the problem of well-meaning Christians who come across as judgemental when they are really trying to be loving and helpful, as well as the tendency sometimes in counseling to provide acceptance and safety without the truth and responsiblity we need to grasp the power to actually change. It is refreshing because it is solid, specific, and treats us as complex, wonderful but fallable children of God who are hurting and so to protect ourselves from further injury we hide, afraid to reach out and try again. But it is not a how-to formula book so much as a scriptural guidebook to see how God made us and how he heals us. This book is not just the same old same old. For me, this book was tremendously important for unlocking hurts and helping me understand. It's not as easily readable as some of his other books like Changes that Heal, Boundaries, or Safe People, but I think it builds on the others and goes deeper. It's about exactly what it says it is, why we hide from love and how to safely come out of our fears and become who we were created to be.

73 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hiding From Love: The Book that Helped Change My Life, September 26, 2000

By A Customer

Hiding From Love provided me with the insight I needed to understand all the why's I had dealt with my entire life. At the age of 45 I was finally able to understand why I had felt so "unlovable", "insecure" and "stupid" as a child, that there were very valid reasons for my thinking that way about myself that were NOT MY FAULT. I began to see myself with confidence, and worthy of being loved, for the first time in my life! I would recommend this book wholeheartedly to anyone struggling with childhood abandonment issues.

36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars John Townsend's book helped me come out of hiding, July 12, 2000

By A Customer

Every person has a desire for intimacy. Sometimes this desire is overriden by fear. The disabling behavior I learned as a child and continued through my adult life has been identified and replaced with constructive behavior. "Hiding from Love" was key in this transformation. My fear has been replaced with empathy and a real capacity for giving and receiving love. I admire every book that comes from the "Minerith-Meier Clinics", or as they are now called, "New Life Live".