I don’t know how you are when it comes to really deep books, but I am scared of them. I try not to be scared of anything, especially not a book that can’t harm me. It’s silly to be scared of a book. Those that pack SO MUCH TRUTH in a few hundred pages are the ones that make my heart and head swell and I feel unprepared to ever take one of those books on.

Before I Could Even Understand

I read a book like this seven or eight years ago by Peter Scazzero, called “Emotionally Healthy Spirituality” and I had only heard about it because the author had come to North Point (our church) to speak on the book. I picked up a copy at the church bookstore on our way out, determined to digest this concept of having an emotionally healthy spiritual life. Keep it in mind that I had never consciously thought of or desired such a thing, because I had never heard of such a concept.

Are you like me (I hope so) when you finally hear and gain a little understanding of something, and let’s use this book title as an example: we know what it means to be emotional, and we know what it means to be healthy. Also, we know what it is to be spiritual, so we, in our minds, start putting these words together. I guess it makes sense to have a “healthy spirituality,” and it also sounds right to be “emotionally healthy,”… SOOOOOOO,…

Emotionally Healthy Spirituality.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you when you start reading this, but I highly encourage you to maybe let this book be one that you read a few pages per week and journal your thoughts and just don’t rush it.

It’s almost impossible to adequately summarize this book, but some of what it talks about is what emotionally unhealthy spiritually looks like, including times where we “die” to the wrong things, which has been a big one for me. As a Christian, it’s critical that we stay deep in Scripture and keep our hands, our hearts, our minds open to the things that God gives us that brings us joy. We cannot let what we think is right, or what we think people expect of us, to dictate what we do. Yes, it’s important to do good things and if we have a responsibility to do something in a role that we have, then we must do it.

But be careful to not misinterpret God’s call for you to be more intentional about having a quiet time each day by seeing a newly freed time slot as an opportunity to get to work earlier or volunteer at one more event.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg, no pun intended to the cover art of the book. But you have to understand that if you want to have an emotionally healthy spiritual life, it’s not enough to just take a quick dive into the deep end of your heart. We have to go deeper still, into the heart of what God is truly trying to reveal to us.

The thing I want to focus on over these summer months, as the motivation from New Years Resolutions have waned and the heat beckons for relaxing days on the water with family and friends, is discipline, focus and habits. I touched lightly on this last year in a blog post, titled “Toward Better,” but I really want us to unpack this in greater detail and I strongly encourage, if you haven’t left a comment or engaged with me on social media about the topics discussed on the blog or podcast, to please share your thoughts. I’ve found that having fruitful, open discussions about these things with a like-minded community really helps us to move toward better in our lives.

Get ready and definitely reach out and share your thoughts and experiences with me. I’d love to hear from you!

Until next time, have a great week!