Why we don't grow spiritually

Important thought on why we do not grow spiritually -

"As spiritual directors we will see this kind of movement [towards God] in our directees. It is certainly reason for rejoicing! But over time, we will also see that the human heart resists this Love, skirts it, moves away from it, and even denies any experience of it.

What accounts for such seemingly contrary behavior? Why would we resist the very One for whom our hearts long? The reason, of course, is simple: Love changes us. Love summons us to grow into the Beloved. And such change —religious tradition calls it "conversion" — threatens the self we identify with and cling to with all our might. When God draws near, we may initially feel consoled, but soon we will discover that God is also a consuming fire, a hammer shattering rock."No one can see me and live," Yahweh warns Moses. God's ways are not our way as Deutero-Isaiah notes.' Taking a path toward God inevitably means
leaving behind much that we hold dear." (Buckley 2012, 61-62)