REMEDY: Journaling Practice for Week Eight

Develop a Rule of Life

A Deeper Look
The Rule of Life will be introduced to us as we study the first Christian community. The word rule comes from the greek for “trellis.” A trellis is a tool that enables a grapevine to get off the ground and grow upward, becoming more fruitful and productive. In the same way, a Rule of Life is a trellis that helps us abide in Christ and become more fruitful spiritually.

Read

• Acts 2:42-47

Study

• Based on this one passage, how would you describe their Rule of Life? Describe the activities/disciplines they use to grow and mature in Christ.

Journal
Parker Palmer, in his book A Hidden Wholeness, uses the image of farmers in the midwest who would prepare for blizzards by tying a rope from the back door of their house out to their barn as a guide to ensure they could return safely home in the middle of the blizzards that came quickly and fiercely during the winter. If the farmers failed to make that line or would lose contact with that line during a blizzard, it often had devastating consequences. Some froze within feet of their own front door, never realizing how close they were to safety. In your journaling, consider these questions:

• What is the nature of your blizzard right now?
• What contributes to your blizzard? What does it look like? Feel like?
• What does the blizzard obscure? What gets lost?
• You need a rope to keep you connected to God. Notice that every rope is actually made up of a series of smaller, intertwined threads. What threads do you want to make up your rope (rule of life)?

-- adapted from Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Workbook by Peter Scazzero

REMEDY: Journaling Practice for Week Seven

Grow Into an Emotionally Mature Adult

A Deeper Look
According to Martin Buber, the great Jewish theologian, we treat people as an “it” when we use them as means to an end or as objects. We treat people as a “thou” when we recognize each person as a separate human being made in God’s image and treat them with dignity and respect.

Read

• Luke 10:25-37

Study

• If you were the priest or Levite, what are some of the reasons you may have passed by this man and treated him as an “it” and not a “thou?”
• What did the Samaritan see and feel that the priest and Levite did not?
• Can you think of a time when you were seen in a negative light, or treated as inferior, or passed over as invisible? How did it feel?
• Who have you been taught not to see or to treat as an “it?”

Journal
One way of growing in the area of loving others well, and treating ourselves and others as a “thou” is to understand how we manage our expectations in relationships. Expectations are assumptions about what someone should do. Every time I make an assumption about someone without checking it out, it is likely I am treating them as an “it” and not a “thou.” The problem with most expectations is that they are:

• unconscious - those we are not even aware of until we are disappointed by someone
• unrealistic - developed by watching TV, movies, or other people/resources that give false impressions
• unspoken - ones we never told our spouse, friend, or employee and yet we expect and are angry when our expectations are not met
• un-agreed upon - our own thoughts about what was expected that were never agreed upon by the other person

Think and write about a recent, simple expectation that went unmet and made you angry or disappointed. Compare them to the inventory above. Journal your observations.

• What steps can you take to make the expectations conscious, spoken, realistic and agreed upon so that you are relating in an “I-thou” way?

-- adapted from Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Workbook by Peter Scazzero

REMEDY: Journaling Practice for Week Six

Discover the Rhythms of Deep Interiority

A Deeper Look
After being forcibly removed from his country and home, Daniel was given a prestigious education and high-level job in government. The pressure on him to conform to the pagan values of Babylon was great. Our text gives us insight into one of the secrets of his faithful devotion to God.

Read

• Daniel 6:6-10

Study

• How do you think this practice anchored Daniel in God and enabled him to resist the great pressure he was facing?
• What costs were involved for Daniel?
• What are the greatest obstacles preventing you from stopping to be with God two or three times a day?

Journal

• What questions, concerns or fears do you have that keep you from making this practice a part of your weekly rhythm?
• What are some steps you can take to begin to incorporate more time between you and God?

-- adapted from Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Workbook by Peter Scazzero

REMEDY: Journaling Practice for Week Five

Enlarge Your Soul Through Grief and Loss

A Deeper Look
The end of Jesus’ vibrant, popular, earthly life and ministry appeared to be an enormous loss to his disciples and followers. In this passage we will observe two very different approaches to that loss - the apostle Peter and Jesus.

Read

• Matthew 26:31-44

Study
Here is a list of common defenses we often use to protect ourself from grief and loss: denial, minimizing (admitting the loss but in such a way that it appears less serious than it actually is), blaming others or God, “over-spiritualizing,” blaming yourself, rationalizing (offering excuses and justification), intellectualizing (giving analysis and theories to avoid personal awareness or difficult feelings), distracting, becoming hostile and medicating (addictions).

• Which defenses does Peter appear to use?
• What defenses to you tend to use when dealing with loss and setbacks, and why?

Journal
Divide your journal into three columns (the far left being small, the other two equally sized) vertically and five equal sections horizontally. In the top left box write Ages 3-12, then label each box descending 13-18, 19-25, 25-40 and 40 and older, respectively.

In the first box to the right in each age range, write down any significant losses/disappointments you experienced. In the last box to the left in each age range, write down your response at that time. Do the same for each age range as you work down the page.

• What was the experience of filling out the chart like for you?
• Did it reveal anything new to you? Explain.
• Are there any losses you have not yet embraced where new life is waiting to be birthed?

-- adapted from Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Workbook by Peter Scazzero

REMEDY: Journaling Practice for Week Four

Journey Through the Wall

A Deeper Look
Abraham, in his earthly pilgrimage with God, appears to go through a number of Walls. His greatest one, however, comes when God asks him to do the unthinkable - to kill his only son Isaac.

Read

• Genesis 22:1-14

Study

• How would you hear the words in verse 2?
• What aspects of “the dark night” might be tormenting Abraham’s soul as he sought to be obedient to God?
• In light of the story, how is your image of God challenged?

Journal
When God takes us through a Wall, we are changed. The following are four primary characteristics of life found on the other side of the Wall.

• Greater Level of Brokenness
• Greater Appreciation for Holy Unknowing (Mystery)
• A Deeper Ability to Wait on God
• A Greater Detachment (from the world)

Choose one characteristic from the above list where you sense God is seeking to work in you now. Journal your thoughts and feelings regarding how God is birthing something new in you and/or helping you shed incomplete or immature ideas about him.

-- adapted from Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Workbook by Peter Scazzero

REMEDY: Journaling Practice for Week Three

Going Back in Order to Go Forward

A Deeper Look
Joseph was born into a complex, blended family where Jacob, his father, his two wives, two concubines and their children, all live under one roof. Joseph was Jacob’s favored son. As a result, his brothers grew jealous, leading them to sell him to a merchant who took him to Egypt. For the next 13 years, Joseph lives first as a slave, and later, as a prisoner falsely accused of rape.

Read

• Genesis 50:15-21

Study

• Imagine yourself in Joseph’s shoes sitting in a prison cell without any hope of freedom. What thoughts, feeling or doubts might you have about your family? About yourself? About God?
• Through miraculous intervention, Joseph is pulled from the pit of prison and made the second most powerful person in Egypt. After their father dies, the brothers begin to worry. What assumptions are the brothers making about Joseph?
• Why do you think Joseph weeps?
• Joseph responded with forgiveness. How might you have responded if you were in Joseph’s position?

Journal

• Divide your journaling with three boxes. Journal about each question in the appropriate box.
• Box one: List the life messages you received from your parents (e.g. don’t be weak. Education is everything. You must achieve to be loved)
• Box two: List any “earthquake” events that sent “aftershocks” into your extended family (e.g. abuse, premature or sudden death/loss, divorces, shameful secrets, etc)
• Box three: Look at the first two boxes and summarize what messages about life/yourself/others you internalized. Fill those messages in the third box.
• How do these messages compare with messages about who you are and how life is to be lived in God’s family?
• What might be one specific message from your family that God is revealing to you today that you want to change?

-- adapted from Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Workbook by Peter Scazzero

REMEDY: Journaling Practice for Week Two

Know Yourself That You May Know God

A Deeper Look
In this famous story, the army of Israel faces the great army of the Philistines. For 40 days, Goliath, described as nine feet tall and dressed in powerful weaponry, challenges any Israelite soldier to come out and fight him. No one took him up on the challenge. We pick up the story after David hears, for the first time, Goliath’s humiliating challenge to Israel’s army.

Read

• 1 Samuel 17:26-45

Study

• What are some of the challenges, accusations and messages David is getting from the people around him?
• What feelings might you be experiencing if you were David?
• How does David live out his true self against he powerful forces and pressures that seek to mold him into someone he is not?

Journal

• What forces and pressures from circumstances and people cause you to shrink back in fear or “wear armor” that does not fit your true self? Many of us are so unaccustomed to distinguishing our true self from our false self that it may seem difficult to know where to begin. Try completing the following sentence as a first step: I am beginning to realize about myself...

-- adapted from Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Workbook by Peter Scazzero

REMEDY: Journaling Practice for Week One

The Problem of Emotionally Unhealthy Spirituality

A Deeper Look
Saul, king of Israel, was instructed by God to fight and completely destroy the Amalekites. He succumbed, however, to the wishes of his fighting men and did only part of God’s will due to a lack of self-awareness (emotional health) and attentiveness toward God (contemplation).

Read

• 1 Samuel 15:7-24

Study

• Verse 11 describes God’s and Samuel’s response to Saul’s actions. What about their response impacts you?
• How does this differ from Saul’s response in verse 12 and 13?
• What might have been going on beneath the surface of Saul’s life that he was unaware of?
• What are some examples of how you go through the motions of making “burnt offerings” and “sacrifices” rather than “obeying the voice of the Lord?”

Journal

• What challenges keep you from slowing down your life to be with God?
• In what ways is your life out of balance between contemplation and activity?

-- adapted from Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Workbook by Peter Scazzero