I do my best to recycle. I cut up copier mistakes into note pads, I reuse left over wood,. and I salvage trash and turn it into something useful. Recycling bins make it easy to sort your stuff; paper here, plastic here, cans here, trash here. If we had one of these sorters in our mind and soul I know, for me, it would make life much easier and lighten my emotional load. But why can’t we set that up? We can.
Let’s begin with the fact that emotions are not bad.
Ecclesiastes 3 tells us there is a time for everything even anger and sadness, as an appropriate part of life and ministry
4a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
and
8a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
Raw emotions such as anger and sadness can be very useful. Anger and sadness can create great works of art or motivate us to be activists and help others. Anger and sadness, unchecked and unreconciled, leads to relationship problems in the church that impede ministry. Anger and sadness that devolve into bitterness, rage, depression, etc. is when our lives become mentally and emotionally unhealthy. When I allow my emotional trash to pile up, well, let’s just say my life evokes a noticeable, funky smell.
Thankfully, Ecclesiastes verse 6 releases me to sort and dump my emotional trash
6a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
Tomorrow I’ll share how hoarding hurts our lives. (Click HERE To Read Part 2)
How about you:
How do you sort your emotional junk?
How do you stay emotionally healthy in ministry?