September 3, 2008

September 3, 2008

Reading these two books together (The Emotionally Healthy Church by Peter Scazzero and Finding God by Dr. Larry Crabb) is an interesting pairing. In the first few chapters of the Crabb's book, he explains that the Christianity of warm fuzzies that is preached in many American churches, is perhaps hindering us from really and truly seeking after God, or finding God. Then Scazzero's book, in the first few chapters, explains that emotions are an integral part our spiritual lives.

In some ways, I find these two books contradictory, but in others I find that they compliment one another. For instance, in Crabb's book, one of the points that he makes is that a period of depression or unhappiness is not necessarily an indicator of the vitality or depth of our relationship with Christ or our walk with God. In a sense, this is saying that our emotions don't necessarily correlate with our spirituality while Scazzero is explaining that our emotions are very much connected with our spirituality, in so much as we cannot be spiritually mature, or have a connection with God that has any depth to it, without being emotionally mature. But on the other hand, Crabb and Scazzero seem to agree, or seem to have the same view that in order to come to God, we need to either willingly come face to face with our emotions, or be thrust into painful recognition of their existence. In both cases, the authors acknowledge that a strong connection with the emotions is necessary for spiritual growth and spiritual maturity.

I'm looking forward to reading further into both these books to find out where these men are going, and what I can learn from them.