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Emotional Health

Emotional health is vital for mission. Being on mission means doing the work of justice, healing, beauty, and evangelism. That healing starts in our own hearts.

Work Meditations - Series Title Image

Letting Go of Work

There’s a tree in my neighbor’s yard that I sometimes watch across the backyard fence. I’m no expert, but I think it’s a linden. Although winter has already stripped the leaves off most trees in our neighborhood, the linden tree is stubborn. I see a smattering of brown near the bottom of the trunk, the first prizes the cold has pried off. But hundreds of orange hearts still cling to the branches, making a rare spot of color in the snow-strewn landscape.

As I look at those leaves, it strikes me that they’re having a hard time letting go. They just don’t want to give up on fall. Winter is here, but they’re not ready for it.

We’re not so unlike those leaves. When it comes to our work, we can hold onto it tightly, even when the time has come to set it aside. It’s hard to let go.

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Work Meditations - Series Title Image

The Dignity of Dishes

My wife Katie and I know a local potter named Tim who makes bowls, mugs, luminaries, garden planters, and other sundry dishes. A few of his works grace our home, including the bowls in the photo above. They bring a touch of beauty to the domestic environment.

Although Tim’s bowls are dishwasher safe, Katie and I do not own a dishwasher. We wash these handmade wares by hand, like all our other dishes.

As I glove up and squirt dish soap onto our plates from IKEA, it’s easy to pine for the convenience of a dishwasher. But with Tim’s bowls, it somehow seems appropriate to give them special care. It’s an almost comic-poetic moment: “Righteousness and peace kiss each other; handmade bowls and hands for washing meet each other.”

We care more about Tim’s bowls than the rest.

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Work Meditations - Series Title Image

The Work Monster

I’ve known work as a refuge. In a time of family crisis, when things at home were anything but steady, work was a sanctuary. In my personal life, I felt scared that I wouldn’t find my way. But at the office, I felt secure, competent, effective.

I’ve also known work as a monster. I was in over my head, and each day when I powered on the computer, it felt like something was getting ready to pounce on me. It wasn’t a question of if the Next Terrible Thing would happen, but when.

Like a school bully who you know you’ll run into at some point during the day, the Work Monster doesn’t have to be sly or strategic. It just throws its weight around.

It’s the long hours. It’s the unclear expectations. It’s the all-too-clear but impossible demands. It’s the meaninglessness of it all.

The Work Monster can beat you up. You come to the end of the day exhausted. Defeated. Alone.

You want to quit.

But you can’t bring yourself to choose the abyss of unemployment. The Work Monster is, at least, the devil you know.

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bird's-eye view of a man typing on a laptop, checking his watch

I’m Too Busy to Do It All

I’m too busy to do it all. The more “behind” I am, the more angsty I get, and that’s not pleasant for anyone. For me, being too busy is almost synonymous with being worried.

In contrast to my own short-on-time angst, I know certain people who radiate a sense of peace. I often wonder, how do they do that? They’re not superhuman, and it’s not as though they have fewer responsibilities than I do. Somehow, they’ve managed to find a solid spiritual center in the middle of the demands of life. That’s the kind of spiritual center I want in my life.

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Recognizing Anger and Shame

Jesus’ teaching is that the kind of heart that reacts to others in anger is a heart that will lead me toward God’s judgment. Anger is a sin that fails to honor the precious people whom God has created. When I routinely directed anger at Katie over money matters, I was failing to see her as the kind of being to whom such anger simply should not be directed. She is too precious for that.

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Finding God in Sadness

Somehow, my pain had become a place where I could experience God’s love. It was as though I needed the warm-up of paying attention to my emotions more intentionally for a few months before it was even possible for me to experience something like that. As I got to know my emotions for myself, I now could share them with God. I could find God in the sadness.

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Seven Signs of an Emotionally Healthy Church

One news story after another has revealed lurking cases of abuse in faith communities that, from the outside, looked vibrant and whole. These stories can be disorienting. They leave us asking difficult questions. How can I know if a new church community is a safe place? When is it right to extend my trust to the leaders of a church? If I’m serving in leadership, how can I tell whether my own community is a good place for people to find their spiritual footing?

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