Emotional Health and the Therapeutic Culture

As you read Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, the one thing you should be aware of is Scazzero's frequent use of therapeutic or pop-psychological terms in place of more biblical language. Even the phrase "emotionally healthy" may strike us a bit more therapeutic than biblical.
So let me try to explain (1) what we are trying to get at by using this book, and (2) what to do with the therapeutic language.
(1) If you read what the watching world says about "born-again" types, one frequent criticism is that they are hypocrites. They talk a big game about morality, both private and public, but when you scratch the surface, "born-againers" are not that different from anyone else.
Inasmuch as this is true (and it often is!), it should humble us--and drive us back to the gospel, asking God to complete the work he has begun in us. And our desire should be for God, beyond transforming the surface of our icebergs (the 10% of our lives that is externally visible), to transform the whole iceberg. This includes the secret corners of our hearts, where much sin lurks unexposed.
And one of the goals is that we would love well--love God with all that we are, and love our neighbors as ourselves--in a way that is genuine, true, authentic, and complete, not merely on the surface. Again, we will not be perfect in this life; but by God's grace (alone!) we rejoice in whatever progress we make.
(2) Therefore, we will need to interpret correctly the language of therapy. Here, for example, is a quote Scazzero uses from a book by Dan Allender and Tremper Longman:

Emotions are the language of the soul. They are the cry that gives the heart a voice.... However, we often turn a deaf ear--through emotional denial, distortion, or disengagement. We strain out anything disturbing in order to gain tenuous control of our innner world. We are frightened and ashamed of what leaks into our consciousness. In neglecting our intense emotions, we are false to ourselves and lose a wonderful opportunity to know God. We forget that change comes through brutal honesty and vulnerability before God.

Now Allender and Longman have not spoken, in that paragraph, about sin, and it may bother us that they have not. We may wish they had. However, though they have used the language of psychology, they are making a biblical point--but it takes some sanctified imagination to "translate" what they write.

Thus "gain[ing] tenuous control of our inner world" means, translated, becoming our own gods--idolatry. Being "frightened and ashamed of what leaks into our consciousness" means that we see rotten fruit coming out of our hearts (which include our emotions), and it reveals that there is sinful rotteness in our hearts (see Luke 7:43-45). "Brutal honesty and vulnerability before God" by which "change comes" is what the Psalmist calls for in Psalm 139:23-24.

We may be more comfortable with language that is more directly biblical. On the other hand, sometimes what is more familiar splashes off of us too easily, without penetrating our hearts. So before we write something off because it doesn't use words we are used to, we do well to listen and try to apply it.

New dollar bill

In light of recent events, I heard today, a new dollar bill is being printed...

Hat tip: the folks at Kardia Learning Center.

Emotionally Healthy Market-watching?

In light of Sunday's sermon, we might ask ourselves what kinds of emotions a present look at our financial portfolio (for those who have one) evokes. Fear? Surprise? Disbelief? What do our emotions about that say about what is in our hearts?
Even so, compassion is also called for. I'm sure there are many who had been working to retire--but who now find themselves suddenly 20% shorter than 6 months ago; whereas people my age and younger still have ample time for their retirement investments to recover.
The ethics of the credit debacle, and of the recovery plan that today failed in the House of Representatives, is (to quote Obama on another matter) "above my pay grade." Still, it seems to me that a people who live on debt are asking for just this kind of thing to happen--as are those who peddle debt to others. As a friend of ours says, we live in a culture that has a greater love for debt than for children, and surely something is backwards in that equation.

Financial Turmoil Cont'd

I can't help myself--I am fascinated by the Wall Street upheaval. So I am trying to learn how all this happens. Is it simple greed? Is it lack of regulation? Who is responsible? Well, here is another article that I found helpful, and you may, too.

Financial Turmoil

I am neither an economist nor otherwise much learned in matters of finance (except for keeping the family finances). But one of the great idols of our time is named "portfolio" ("portfolio" also has many proper uses, in his own place, of course). And so it is with some interest that I followed the events on Wall Street banks over the last ten days or so. And in my own unlearned way, here is an article I found of some help in understanding what it is all about. Most evangelicals are part of the "Reagan Coalition" of social conservatives, free-enterprise business interests, and foreign policy hawks. It seems to be that perhaps this is an area, however, where we have not been served by unregulated markets. If the government has a role to play in social policy (abortion, etc.)--where I think evangelicals generally overstate government's role--does it also have a valuable role to play in regulating the financial markets? Something to think about...

Jesus' Emotional Life

This Sunday our focus will be Jesus' emotional life. Perhaps that seems a strange concept for you. It certainly has opened up a new way of seeing Jesus for me. A great deal of what I preach will come from an excellent essay by B.B. Warfield (professor at old Princeton Seminary) entitled, "The Emotional Life of our Lord." It's a pretty good read!

Cevastation in Haiti

If you subscribe to the Hopp's blog, please go read it. If you do not, please click here for a Miami Herald report about PCA missionsary Charles Amicy in Cabaret, just a short distance from where the Hopps live. And pray.

Elders and Deacons

This coming Sunday I will be preaching on elders and deacons--since this is the beginning of the month where every year we nominate men for those offices. If you want to study more about this, much of what I say comes from a little book (69 pages) called The Elders of the Church, by Lawrence Ayres. I have extra copies to give to whoever promises to read it--see me on Sunday.