I have been reading a book that has really challenged me and helped me. It is called “Emotionally Healthy Spirituality” by Peter Scazzero. As I counsel with people and mentor people I have seen first hand the range of emotions and hurts within people. I am included in that by the way.

Most people can put on a happy face most of the time and look good from a distance. I do that and I am sure many others do as well. It is all the stuff under the surface that causes so much chaos in our lives. Scazzero uses the analogy of an iceberg. You can see only the tip of the iceberg, usually about 10% of the entire mass. The other 90% is under the surface of the water. That is the part that most people don’t see and what most of us don’t like to deal with.

Understanding ourselves, our emotions, our childhood, our families, our desires, our hurts, our hangups, our limits and our weaknesses helps us to get closer to God. We are all on a journey and would say that we desire to get closer to God. Usually their is a wall that is blocking us from going deeper with Him. So we tend to look for spiritual stuff to learn or do instead of dealing with the wall.

Your emotional health is a good indicator of your spiritual health. They are linked together, so if you want to grow spiritually then look at where you are emotionally. Do you have some areas you don’t want to go? What are the dark corners of your soul? Do you recognize name and manage your feelings? What are some of the losses in your life and how have you grieved over them?

I could go on, but I am still processing all this myself. If you are up for a revolution in your life I recommend taking the time to dig deep into your emotional health and discover what God has for you. I used to think that the local church is the hope of the world; now I would say that the emotionally healthy Christians in the local church can change the world.