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Emotionally Healthy Spirituality

Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)
28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
29 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.
30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

In just one week the Winter/Spring semester begins for me at Christian Life College - Madison.  I am a Pastor in both my passion and my sense of God's calling.  That is what I do most of the time.  The other part of my time is to have the privilege to teach a college class and enjoy the academic side of Spirituality.
I don't think a lot of people think about their faith often enough.  We're told that the greatest commandment is "to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, your soul, your mind."  It certainly seems important to think with our mind.  In a classroom I often ask questions...seeking to get students to think and personalize the material.

This next Semester's class is a course on "Development and Growth"...how do we as Christians grow and develop in soul, spirit, and mind?
One aspect of this course is to dive into some material in a book - Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, written by Peter Scazzero.  He has some really helpful things to say about how we do, or do not, grow-up in emotionally healthy ways, and he has a lot of experience - he almost quit his faith and his ministry because of his own lack of emotional health.

My own experience in this is similar.  There came a time in the late 1990's that I almost quit.  Almost quit ministry, almost quit the church, almost quit on just about everything.  I was discouraged, burnt out, and fed up.

The truth is that we live in a society where being a member of a church has proved to be of little help when it comes to marriage, divorces, friendships, parenting, sexuality, singleness, addictions, depression, etc...  The truth is that Christians have about the same percentages as the general population when it comes to all of these areas.  Which is one reason why some people QUIT.  They grow up in church, but when it comes to their experiences they feel frustrated by the lack of progress...and when people don't quit, they stay but without the passion, staying passive for years.

SOMETHING is missing, somethings not right, and that deep gnawing feeling is right where many find themselves.
There are no end of suggested solutions, and I've tried them all:
  • More Bible Study
  • More Community Programs
  • This is Spiritual Warfare
  • Healing Prayer
  • Worship
  • Mission/Serving
  • Need to get hold of God's grace more
All have a place, but none are solutions...in fact, as a stand alone they can only serve to deceive us into thinking we only need time and to try harder.

What is true about us is that we resemble an Iceberg...what people see is the 10% we project, and the real US is the 90% below the surface.

Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)
28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
29 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.
30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."



A Yoke is a two-animal collar.  It meant they pulled together.  They were a team and together they could do what neither of them could do alone.  The weariness and burden-bearing that would be singular is changed into something that felt quite restful.
What's interesting is that in Israel during Jesus' day, the farming with Oxen was usually done so that one experienced Ox worked with a younger one, so that the younger one grew up understanding what it was suppose to do.

Jesus says, hook yourself up with me.  I'll help you get "un-wearied", "un-burdened", you'll find that it is more "rest" than work.

I'm going to blog some more on this as my semester goes along...but I thought you'd might to start "thinking" with me also.

Peace

Comments

Paul said…
E, Well, I am glad you did not quit the ministry. I feel the teaching we get at New Life gives us everything we need to grow our faith. God is surely with you in this leading or call to teach us. It seems to me that God sometimes seems distant. As a matter of fact, 2nd Chronicles 32 verse 31 it says God left King Hezekiah to test him and to know everything that was in his heart. As you know King Hezekiah was like no other king before him or after him in his devotion to God. 2nd Kings even uses the words "wholehearted devotion". I really felt God's presence right after Becky's diagnosis saying through is word...I'm here, I will never leave you, I love you deeply, I want to grow your faith if you will listen, good things and bad things happen to good people, and so on, and so on, and so on.(I could go on for a while here.) The thing I think I heard him say the loudest however, was WATCH OUT, THE ENEMY WILL ATTACK YOU WITH RELENTLESS AGGRESSION, SO YOU NEED MY TRUTH TO COMBAT HIM. I found myself getting up at 2 in the morning to read sometimes. It seems the perfect time for God's enemy to attack is when bad things are happening to us. I am so glad for God's word. The words of James are remembered often, "get rid of all moral filth and evil that are so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you." I think it saved my life. Thanks be to God.
January 20, 2012 at 10:18 AM
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