A number of years ago I had to face the fact that I would never grow spiritually beyond my level of health emotionally. I had many unhealthy patterns of thought and behavior that had dug ruts in my soul, and they were wreaking havoc in my personal life and in the church I was leading.
The reality was that my discipleship and spirituality had not touched a number of deep internal wounds and sin patterns. I was stuck at an immature level of spiritual and emotional development. And my way of living the Christian life was not transforming the deep places in my life.
In short order, here are the top eight signs that I was an emotionally unhealthy Christian:
Like most Christians, I was taught that almost all feelings are unreliable and not to be trusted. It is true that some Christians follow their feelings in an unhealthy, unbiblical way. It is more common, however, to encounter Christians who do not believe they have permission to admit their feelings or express them openly. This applies especially to such “difficult” feelings as fear, sadness, shame, anger, hurt, and pain. And yet, how can we listen to what God is saying and evaluate what is going on inside when we cut ourselves off from our emotions?
3. Denying the Impact of the Past on the Present
For years, I was under the delusion that because I accepted Jesus, my old life was no longer in me. My past before Christ was painful. I wanted to forget it. I never wanted to look back. Life was so much better now that Jesus was with me. I thought I was free.
But I will never forget the first time we made a genogram—a diagram outlining some of the patterns of our families. It revealed that our marriage bore a striking resemblance to that of our parents’. Even though we had been committed Christians for almost twenty years, our ways of relating mirrored much more our family of origin than the way God intended for his new family in Christ.
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.
Work for God that is not nourished by a deep interior life with God will eventually be contaminated by other things such as ego, power, needing approval from others, and buying into the wrong ideas of success and the mistaken belief that we can’t fail. We become “human doings” not “human beings.” Our experiential sense of worth and validation gradually shifts from God’s unconditional love for us in Christ to our works and performance. Our activity for God can only properly flow from a life with God.
5. Spiritualizing Away Conflict
Perhaps one of the most destructive myths alive in the Christian community today is the belief that smoothing over disagreements or “sweeping them under the rug” is part of what it means to follow Jesus. Jesus shows us that healthy Christians do not avoid conflict. His life was filled with it! He was in regular conflict with the religious leaders, the crowds, the disciples—even his own family. Out of a desire to bring true peace, Jesus disrupted the false peace all around him. He refused to spiritualize conflict avoidance.
6. Covering Over Brokenness, Weakness, and Failure
The pressure to present an image of ourselves as strong and spiritually “together” hovers over most of us. We feel guilty for not measuring up, for not making the grade. We forget that not one of us is perfect and that we are all sinners.
The Bible does not spin the flaws and weaknesses of its heroes. Moses was a murderer. Hosea’s wife was a prostitute. Peter rebuked God! Noah got drunk. Jonah was a racist. Jacob was a liar. John Mark deserted Paul. Elijah burned out. Jeremiah was depressed and suicidal. Thomas doubted. Moses had a temper. Timothy had ulcers.
And all these people send the same message: that every human being on earth, regardless of their gifts and strengths, is weak, vulnerable, and dependent on God and others.
I was taught that good Christians constantly give and tend to the needs of others. I wasn’t supposed to say no to requests for help because that would be selfish. The core spiritual issue here relates to our limits and our humanity. We are not God. We cannot serve everyone in need.
Why don’t we take appropriate care of ourselves? Why are so many Christians, frantic, exhausted, overloaded, and hurried? Few Christians make the connection between love of self and love of others. As Parker Palmer said in his book Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation, “Self-care is never a selfish act—it is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer others.”
This has always been one of the greatest dangers in Christianity. Sadly, we often turn our differences into moral superiority or virtues. By failing to let others be themselves before God and move at their own pace, we inevitably project onto them our own discomfort with their choice to live life differently than we do. Like Jesus said, unless I first take the log out of my own eye, knowing that I have huge blind spots, I am dangerous. I must see the extensive damage sin has done to every part of who I am—emotion, intellect, body, will, and spirit—before I can attempt to remove the speck from the eye of another (Matthew 7:1–5).
God, as I look over this list, the only thing I can say is, “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Thank you that I stand before you in the righteousness of Jesus, in his perfect record and performance, not my own. I ask that you would not simply heal the symptoms of what is not right in my life, but that you would surgically remove all that is in me that does not belong to you. As I think about what I have read, Lord, pour light over the things that are hidden. May I see clearly as you hold me tenderly.
Izin promo ya Admin^^ bosan tidak ada yang mau di kerjakan, mau di rumah saja suntuk, mau keluar tidak tahu mesti kemana, dari pada bingung mari bergabung dengan kami di ionqq^^com, permainan yang menarik ayo ditunggu apa lagi.. segera bergabung ya dengan kami... add Whatshapp : +85515373217 ^_~ :))
We opened our beautiful Saturday morning, 8th April 2017 with a Gasing hike. 22 angelic 😇😇 members joined the fun. Our CHOICE friend, Ali on the other hand, had no choice but to come to honour the 'memorandum of understanding' that was made with the CHOICE team. Ahem.. thank you people for persistently attending morning mass for this purpose 😂😂😁. He also came for health reasons la.. This is the story of our Ali. As he was hiking Gasing hill for the first time, he saw this... Wahlaowei... he muttered. Dia pun berkata, "Merenung masa depan, turun tak boleh, naik lagi tak boleh😜😜😜." hahahah, jangan marah Alis And then... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... He is still there😆😜 Sitting like a meditating Buddha. Already bertaubat d from He is also very sweet and 'helpful' "Cherry, u ok? I jaga u ar..."😂😂 " Cherry, jum duduk jap"😂😂😜😜 Alex
How many of you have witnessed a meteor shower?? A bunch of us got really excited when we got to know that this phenomenon can be witnessed in a few spots outside of KL and we just decided to drive down to Sekinchan, Kuala Selangor after our roadshow in Our Lady of Fatima, Brickfields. The phenomenon was expected to take place around 1.30am. We reached at 1.15am, thanks to our 2fast&furious drivers👏👏 and then we waited anxiously for the meteors. We waited.... Waited.... And waited... for hours... but all we saw was the beach and the dark sky😓😓😓 We weren't discouraged though. When a gang of choicees gather, there's bound to be silly jokes, lots of fun and laughter...till we scared all the people at the beach who were there before us. That is how noisy we were..HAHAHAHA After hours of waiting, we decided to head home before the sun comes up. Despite the sleepless night, our champion Joy Nathan managed to complete the 5km colour run, that morning.
It was always going to be a battle between Power Rangers vs the beast. On Sunday, April 2nd 2017 we had both movies planned and the movie tickets bought. But for some reason the beastly romance 😂😂😂 melted most our ladies hearts and naturally our gentlemen had to sacrifice the action (for lent time - amen) and tagged along. Poor Eric was one example... Had to defect to the 'other' side.. Hahahahha. Just kidding la... but seriously, t he guys were nobody was victimised here.. . We all had fun *wink* One thing is for sure... none of us turned Gay!!! Awwww the sweetest ppl in the house! However, I must say, the most remarkable person was our loving Mama bear . Thank you for making this movie date happened!
Izin promo ya Admin^^
ReplyDeletebosan tidak ada yang mau di kerjakan, mau di rumah saja suntuk,
mau keluar tidak tahu mesti kemana, dari pada bingung
mari bergabung dengan kami di ionqq^^com, permainan yang menarik
ayo ditunggu apa lagi.. segera bergabung ya dengan kami...
add Whatshapp : +85515373217 ^_~ :))