Response to Emotionally Healthy Spirituality
I have lived among Christians my whole life. Over half of the people I know are Christians. God has taught me through my experience, before and after conversion, that there is work to being a Christ follower. Peter Scazzero, in his book Emotionally Healthy Christianity, tells us that we as Christians are often struggling more than we think. Emotions touch every part of our lives and can control different aspects of us if we are not trusting the God we say we love. Jesus said in Matthew 11, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Jesus said that He would help lighten the load, but He never said that it was going to be easy. As Christians we need to love and trust Jesus in every way so that we can deny ourselves, while still finding value in ourselves, and let the Holy Spirit work through us in every circumstance.
Emotions are, and should be, in every part of our life. We would be lost without happiness, sadness, anger, or even silliness. John reminds us that, “We love because God first loved us. (1 Jn 4:19)” Love is a grand topic, there are many definitions for the word, and yet they are all right. If someone were to dedicate themselves to the study of even earthly love they would have more than a lifetimes worth of work to do. Contemplating these things are essential to emotional maturity. Scazzero says that, “contemplation and emotional health are different and yet overlap. In a very real sense, both are necessary to loving God, loving ourselves, and loving others. (Scazzero, 46)” Godl...
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...ese things I believe the country could be turned upside down in a week. God longs for us to love Him and show others love in an emotionally healthy way. Doing that is not always easy and I think that is the point. Because it is not always easy we need to rely on the Father’s prevision for our lives and trust Him rather than our own impulses. I think that Scazzero hit the nail on the head with that idea. The Holy Spirit is alive and available to help if we would submit to the Father and trust the work of Jesus. To do this is not always easy, but in trusting in the things God says to us in our quiet times and through our Christian community we can live a fruitful life while staying emotionally healthy in our spirit.
Works Cited
Scazzero, Peter. Emotionally Healthy Spirituality: Unleash a Revolution in Your Life in Christ. Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson, 2011.
Psychology, Theology, and Spirituality in Christian Counseling written by Mark McMinn and published by Tyndale House in 2011 notions towards the idealization that Christian counselors need to be privy in the most recent psychological methods as well as theological theories. “This is a book about counseling processes techniques” (McMinn, 2011, p. 150). McMinn also alluded that Christian counselors benefit from having a spiritual maturity. With having these attributes counselors are better prepared to take note of prayer, Scripture, sin, confession, forgiveness, and redemption. McMinn (2011) model flows in the direction of healing while equating to a more advantageous relationship with The Lord Jesus Christ as well as with other relationships (McMinn, 2011).
Cunningham, M. (2012). Integrating Spirituality in Clinical Social Work Practice: Walking the Labyrinth (1 ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education Inc.
Clinton, T. & Ohlschlager, G. (2002). Competent Christian counseling: Foundations and practice of compassionate soul care. Colorado Springs, CO: WaterBrook Press.
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