(By Richard Glazier)
Sometimes I can be incredibly slow on the uptake. Joining the dots doesn’t always come naturally, and what should be a coherent, integrated concept is in fact a Spaghetti Junction of disconnected ideas! And then the penny finally drops, I finally get it, there is a Kairos moment.
Recently, I was reflecting on the current exploration of emotionally healthy Spirituality (EHS for short!) at The Well. Having read the associated book(s), seen the videos, attended the webinars (everything but buying the t-shirt!), I had found much to learn from and apply to my own life. But the question still lingered – how did this connect with Jesus and His Kingdom?
Then it hit me; reading afresh the story in Matthew 22, concerning the greatest commandment, I began to see that the goal, the result, the aim of EHS is love! A spirituality that embraces and integrates our emotions under the loving leadership of Jesus must surely result in an increased capacity to love as Jesus loved.
The converse is also true- a failure to integrate our lives, including our emotions, around the loving leadership of Jesus will result in our lives being like creaking, rusty gates (I Cor 13:1, The Message). Although we may desire to love others well, unless we are journeying in emotional health, the love we show will be distorted and unclear. Our attempts at loving without strings attached, just as Jesus loved, will be hamstrung by our own emotional needs, our failures to respond out of our new life in Christ and instead to respond from the scripts given to us by our parents and our past.
To love well we need to be well, in all spheres of our lives; the journey into EHS is one that, while not always easy, is so necessary! Let’s encourage one another to keep journeying, as we develop the understanding, the practices and the frameworks that cause us to be better lovers of Jesus and others!
“And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds…”