The Grace Journal

Others don't treat you the way you feel you should be treated. One situation after another doesn't go the way you had hoped. Your heart in constantly hurting and you wonder if it will ever be whole again.  

You are trudging through an emotional and spiritual wasteland. 

Sound familiar? 

Deserts are a part of life. Such a big part of our human experience that the Bible takes up almost 4 whole books at the beginning of the Old Testament recounting the Israelites wandering the desert for 40 years. 

And this wasn't an emotional desert...this was a physical desert...scorching heat...no water...no signs of civilization...no confirmation that leaving Egypt was a good decision. 

During the beginning of their journey, they began to run out of rations and as we all know...hungry people...are grumpy people. They began to complain...going as far as to say "we should have never left Egypt in the first place!"

Then in Exodus 16 God hears them. And sends a substance the Israelites named "manna" that miraculously appeared every morning. 

And it sustained them. They didn't understand how it got there and in the beginning it was weird, but through the 40 years of wandering...it became a daily comfort that they would not starve and a daily reminder that God was watching over them. 

In the desert of life...faith is our manna. It is the thing that...while we might not always understand...it will sustain us. 

I'm sure there were days when the Israelites got up and thought "not manna again!" And there will be days where you think "not living by faith again!" On the hard days, it has to become a conscious choice. 

The Israelites could have gone a few days without eating the manna that was provided, but after a while...it would have been detrimental to their health. The same goes for us...faith feeds our spiritual/emotional/mental needs. 

As 2014 comes to a close, I pray you grab hold of faith in 2015 and allow it to be your daily nourishment during times of drought. 

Xoxo,

Keri 

No...I don't mean physically...like are you still stuffed from all those yummy Thanksgiving foods? :)

I mean...how are you FEELING EMOTIONALLY? 

It's a tough question for some. 

As Christian (and even if you're not) some of us are programmed from childhood to see emotions through black and white lenses...good emotions are good...bad emotions are bad. Cut and dry...that's it. 

And then what do we do? We stuff emotions such as anger, fear, depression, bitterness and hurt down deep inside because after all..."The JOY of the Lord is my strength" Nehemiah 8:10 says so every emotion must be happy or I am weak in faith. 

Sound familiar?

I have recently started a book that my counselor recommneded called "Emotionally Healthy Spirituality" by Peter Scazzero and in chapter 2 he lists the top 10 Symptoms of Emotionally Unhealthy Spirituality.

Number 2 was: ignoring the emotions of anger, sadness and fear. 

And there was this quote: 

What exactly does it mean? Let's break it down. 

To feel is human. Feelings are a natural part of our genetic make up. Our bodies are designed to release adrenaline when we are scared, serotonin when we are happy, leucine-enkephalin when we are sad and so many other hormones and chemicals that engrained within our bodies that all have to do with FEELINGS. 

To minimize or deny what we feel. Minimize is to lower our emotional needs for the sake of someone else. Are there times this is necessary? Yes, but if it is a recurring theme in your life, the build up of back logged emotions can be hazardous physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. To outright deny they exist is taking the disaster of minimizing and multiplying it times 10. 

This was me. My therapist and I use the analogy of a backpack. Instead of dealing with my issues, I denied they existed by stuffing them away and pretending they didn't exist, when all the while my mental/emotional "backpack" became heavier and heavier with these bricks of negative emotions that I began to stumble and there was little to no room for the good stuff. 

Is a distortion. One of the 3 definitions of distortion is this: the act of giving a misleading account or impression {the other 2 definitions are science based.}

Of what it means to be image bearers. What is an image bearer? Simply someone who reflects back an image...a physical mirror if you will. 

Of our personal God. This is where decisions need to made. Who/what is your personal God? Is your job? Is your status? Even our EMOTIONS can become our God if we choose to live in drama and only feel "alive" when you are needed as an emotional sounding board. 

If you're a believer...your personal God is ..well GOD with a BIG G ad I've heard people say and you know what? Our God is an emotional God! 

Here's a few examples: 

"For GOD so LOVED the World..." John 3:16