Renewing Our Emotions For Spiritual Health

I’m a social media junkie. I love everything about it. I love seeing what everyone’s up to, the funny Snapchat filters, heck I even like the cliched food photos. Social media has allowed me to maintain many more relationships than I have been able to in the past.

Unfortunately, a side effect of social media is that it sometimes makes me feel inadequate. It seem like EVERYONE’s got it together, EVERYONE’s got a nicer, more interesting life than mine. It seems like everyone is on vacation all the time with their perfect kids and perfect spouse gorging themselves on amazing food all day while still maintaining perfect six-pack abs.

Though this is what we perceive, the reality is that what we see on the surface is not necessarily the truth. As a matter of fact, it is RARELY the truth. The truth is that under the pristine surface of what people show you on social media, there is a whole lot of brokenness. This is not only true for my friends, but for myself.

This concept is at the heart of Emotionally Healthy Spirituality. EHS teaches us that our lives are like a glacier. The tip are the images that we show the world. We flaunt it, take photos of it, apply the Valencia filter, use the right amount of Vignette and Tilt Shift to draw the eyes’ attention to the most beautiful parts of it so that we can subconsciously show everyone that we’ve got it all together. But in reality, there is a whole other side of the glacier that runs downward, into the deep dark places of our souls. It is a place that many of us do not dare go because of unresolved pain, conflicts, and sin.  

We at Metro firmly believe that it is IMPOSSIBLE to be spiritually healthy if you are not emotionally healthy. If one does not deal with the brokenness that is underneath the pristine image that you put forth every day, it is impossible to be in a place of spiritual health. As such, 4 weeks ago, 25 of us embarked on a journey towards spiritual and emotional health. We have learned so far about how important it is to begin the journey to knowing oneself, to explore family patterns of sin, and how to handle times of spiritual dryness.

We’re only halfway through the class, but the Spirit has already done some amazing things in people’s lives! We are so very excited to see what more He will do in the coming weeks!

Submitted by Michael Yi
Associate Pastor of Spiritual Formations

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