I picked this quote up the other day but can’t remember where, so sorry if I pinched it off you unacknowledged! It spoke to an issue I have been pondering so you might find it helpful too.

Nouwen: … Let me paint a picture. You’re in a big room with a six-inch balance beam in the center. The balance beam is only twelve inches off the fully carpeted floor. Most of us act as if we were blindfolded and trying to walk on that balance beam; we’re afraid we’ll fall off. But we don’t realize we’re only twelve inches off the floor. The spiritual director is someone who can push you off that balance beam and say, “See? It’s okay. God still loves you. Take that nervousness about whether you’re going to succeed and whether you have enough money — take the whole thing up on that narrow beam and just fall off.”

Foster: That’s one of the great values of reading the saints. They had this utter vulnerability to fail by human standards.