Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero

Title: Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero

Pages: 227

How it was obtained: I bought it just before I moved to Thailand.

Time spent on the "to read" shelf: 4 months.

Days spent reading it: 3 weeks.

Why I read it: The senior pastor at my church, Dave Young, suggested reading it to the elders of our church. I took him up on his suggestion.

Brief review: Peter Scazzero makes a very compelling argument that our spiritual health is tied to our emotional health. In seminary I read The Emotionally Healthy Church (EHC), and I remember loving the openness and honesty of Scazzero's writing. Emotionally Healthy Spirituality (EHS) is along the same lines as EHC. EHS simply brings the concepts of its predecessor to the layman.

In this book Scazzero shows by examples from his own life, how our emotionally immaturity has stunted our spiritual growth. There are so many ways that we can be emotionally immature. There is a lot of material in this book. I could easily see a church using it as a text for a Sunday School or small group material. The first half of the book deals with the problems that being emotionally unhealthy bring. The second half is a roadmap to emotional maturity. Scazzero illustrates very heavily from his own life throughout. As a reader I was captivated (again, because I already read the story once) by Scazzero's struggles as a pastor. A church split, a wife who stopped going to his church, reaching the end of his own strength, and then seeing the redemptive path after he opens up to his hurt, anger, and pain instead of burying it.

I would highly recommend this book. It is fairly easy to read, and very informative. There is so much information that it's almost impossible to digest it all, but I think everyone could at least start down the road that Scazzero plans and profit from his advice. Scazzero has a pastoral heart and it shines through in this book. He wants people to connect with God in a personal way, and he does that by trying to bring us to a more balanced view of our emotions and how those emotions affect our spiritual walk.

Favorite quote: Many of us know the experience of being approved for what we do. Few of us know the experience of being loved for being just who we are.

Stars: 4 out of 5.

Final Word: Liberating.