All of Us

Inspiration short

The Book of Job tells a story about all of us.

Job lost everything in a day.

We will lose everything over a lifetime, slowly.

“Most of us will lose our lives slowly, over the span of a lifetime, having lost everything, leaving everything behind, all of our relationships, all of our possessions, all of our health, our youthfulness, our dreams…” -Pete Scazzero

It’s part of life to lose.

It’s part of life to be sad.

To be angry.

To grieve.

As Pete says, “In Western culture, we have an ascent theology, bigger and better. We don’t have much of a theology for anger, sadness, waiting, or depression.”

In America’s Church, theology is often taught in the realm of the ‘good things.’ There’s not a lot of space for sadness, for lament, for the depressed and discouraged. But in the Bible, there are entire books dedicated to those same things and people.

Just because the end is filled with hope doesn’t mean the journey isn’t one filled with pain.

So if you hurt, longing, discouraged there’s a good chance, you’ve found the right path towards hope.

Behind the Blog

It was 3:57 pm, and I abruptly grabbed all my books and backpack and walked out of the coffee shop so they could clean up.

I looked around, and the place was still full. These people need to leave, I thought. I walked out and walked back around to their window where posted was, “New hours! 8a-5p!”

Shoot, I could have stayed another hour! I guess I could go back in, but I’d already packed up, so I took a walk instead. And then found a table outside to read at. Now it’s 6:03 pm. The sun is out, and it’s just so hard to leave. I was catching up on some podcasts and got absolutely mesmerized by Pete Scazzero.

I took some notes and then some more notes and then I just had to stop and write a blog.

My Notes from The Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast:

Discover Treasures in Grief and Loss

The Book of Job is the story of all of us. Job lost everything in a day… most of us will lose our lives slowly, over the span of a lifetime, having lost everything, leaving everything behind, all of our relationships, all of our possessions, all of our health, our youthfulness, our dreams.

Nobody gets through life without living through catastrophic losses.

As we grow in Christ, we realize we have to lose some wrong ideas about God that we had, and that can be painful, even wrong ideas about church.

In Western culture, we have an ascent theology, bigger and better. We don’t have much of a theology for anger, sadness, waiting, or depression.

Anger, sadness, grieving is seen as… something’s wrong, not very spiritual.

Our culture doesn’t do lament, grief, and loss. We don’t enjoy the treasures either. We find some way to medicate, some kind of addictive behavior. That’s the most common way people deal with pain, addiction. …whether television, being busy, pornography, eating, drinking, pills.

If you’re a leader, you experience a disproportionate amount of losses, because people we invest in end up not working out, dreams that we have die, team members leave, betrayal happens, relationships shatter.

Many Christian leaders I meet are emotionally numb.

Without people entering their own grief and loss, we’re not going to build a community that bridges racial, cultural, ethnic, and gender barriers… we are all broken, grief and loss enable us to love. It puts us all on common ground. Cuts us all down to size.

Barbara Brown Taylor — “I have learned things in the dark, I could have never have learned in the light, things that saved my life over and over again… so there really is only one logical conclusion, I need darkness as much as I need light.”

I haven’t had lunch or dinner yet. Sometimes, I wake up, have a smoothie, get a coffee, and get caught up in reading and writing. Those are some of the best days. And these are certainly a lot of notes and things to process in my mind. But sometimes, it’s a little easier to process when you also have something to eat, so I think I’ll do that right now too.