Set your affections upon Me (God) and keep them there. Center your attention upon Me.
Yes, set your heart to follow after Me with singleness of mind.
This will remove doubt at every crossroad….
Never set out on a “project”
My life is not project but overflow
– Come Away My Beloved Devotional
As I sat with a dear friend over coffee this afternoon we briefly talked about these following key points that start of the book “Emotionally Healthy Spirituality” by Peter Scazzero that I’ve been reading. This book was recommended to me by a good friend and it so goes in line with things God has already been showing me and growing me in… Really inspiring to hear from people who’ve sought to know Christ for more years than I’ve been alive. This book is by a Pastor in Queens, NY and definitely one to at least read the available chapters on Amazon.
Top Ten Symptoms of Emotionally Unhealthy Spirituality
1. Using God to Run from God
•When I hide behind God talk, deflecting any spotlight on my inner cracks and becoming defensive about my failures
• Creating a good deal of “God-activity” and ignore difficult areas in my life God wants to change
2. Ignoring the emotions of anger, sadness and fear
• How can I listen to what God is saying to me and evaluate what is going on inside of me when I am so imprisoned?
3. Dying to the Wrong Things
• We are to die to the sinful parts of who we are — defensiveness, detachment from others, arrogance, stubbornness, hypocrisy, judgementalism, a lack of vulnerability— God never asked us to die to the healthy desires and pleasures of life—- God intends our deeper, truer self, which he created to blossom freely as we follow Him
4. Denying the Past’s Impact on the Present
• The work of growing in Christ actually demands we go back in order to break free from unhealthy and destructive patterns that prevent us from loving ourselves and others as God designed.
5. Dividing our lives into “secular” and “sacred” compartments
6. Doing for God Instead of Being With God
7. Spiritualizing Away Conflict
• Jesus shows us that healthy Christians do not avoid conflict. His life was filled with it! He was in regular conflict with religious leaders, the crowds, the disciples, even his own family. Out of a desire to bring true peace, Jesus disrupted the peace all around him.
8. Covering over Brokenness, Weakness and Failure
9. Living without Limits
• We are called to lay down our lives for others (I Jn 3:16) but remember, you first need a self to lay down.
10. Judging other people’s spiritual journey
• By failing to let others be themselves before God and move at their own pace, we inevitable project onto them our own discomfort with their choice to live life differently than we do.
Link to the book Emotionally Healthy Spirituality
Did I ever tell you about the time I told the checker at Trader Joe’s that I liked to do as little dressing as possible? Well…. here it is ;)
A few months back my roommate J and I went to the market together, one that I use to frequent a few years back when I lived on that side of town. As I had just paid and bagged my groceries, I stood waiting on J to be checked out. As I stood there another “Trader Joe’s Crew Member” came up and began helping the bagging of J’s groceries and struck up small talk by telling me something along the lines of “Oh you’re back.” I realized he meant because I use to go in there all the time a few years ago when I lived in the neighborhood. I responded by saying “Oh yea, I moved and I like to do as little dressing as possible.” Wait, why did I just say that? ”I mean driving as possible.” Yes, I said that. I truly didn’t think I was thinking anything scandalous, but it came out of my mouth nonetheless. He responds “Either one is good.” Uh oh, I think to myself.. Katee where are you going with this conversation, bring it back, bring it back! So I go to the basics, “Where are you from?” Completely ignoring what had just taken place. He replies somewhere that I’ve wanted to go for years and years so of course I respond enthusiastically and say that I’ve always wanted to go there!! Why did I just do that, I have no idea, sometimes I get caught up in the moment. And I’ve dreamed of going to this place for as long as I can remember. Ha! He responds to my enthusiasm by letting me know that “If I (you) ever wanna go on a road trip to x just let me know.” Opps.
oh a day in the life of katee grace.
thanks for stoppin’ by :) xoxo, katee grace
