Emotionally Healthy Discipleship by Peter Scazzero

Author:Peter Scazzero
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2021-03-02T00:00:00+00:00

Yet, it is in these confusing in-between times that God uproots our self-will, strips us of layers of our false self, and frees us from unhealthy attachments. It is in these in-between seasons that we are emptied, and this emptying has one primary purpose—to make room for something new and better.

Let’s face it: waiting on God in the midst of loss defies human instincts and quick solutions. It runs contrary to Western culture and our own bent toward self-will. That is why we so desperately need the Holy Spirit to sustain us in these times.

In a brilliant essay entitled “Of Patience,” Tertullian (AD 160–220) expounds on a theme we rarely talk about today—that it is God’s nature to be patient. He reminds us that when the Holy Spirit descends, patience and waiting are always present as well. Why? That is his nature.

Tertullian even argues that the root of the original rebellion of Adam and Eve was rooted in impatience: “For, to put it in a nutshell, every sin is to be traced back to impatience. I find the origin of impatience in the Devil himself.”15 We are on very different timetables than our God for whom a thousand years are like a day (2 Peter 3:9).16 Is it any wonder why this second phase of waiting in the confusing-in-between during loss is so challenging, if not almost impossible, without the Holy Spirit?

Most of my spiritual growth has come out of these painful, mysterious, and confusing experiences—the in-between times—over which I had so little control. I can identify at least five significant dark nights in my forty-five-year journey with Christ. One of the ways I know I am in a dark night is when my prayers sound something like this: “Lord, I can’t go on. You overdid it with me. You have given me more than I can bear—even though you promised not to! Just take me home. Amen.”

When I have resisted God by simply getting busier and trying to hold everything together, I short-circuited the preparation I needed in order to receive the new beginnings God had for me. When I have waited with him, I discovered this in-between confusion was rich in insights and mercies. What looked like an empty, blurry, inactive season turned out to be a surprising place of transition and God’s powerful, beneath-the-surface work in my life.

The same principle of the confusing in-betweens, or dark nights, applies to groups and churches as well. The following story describes one of those we experienced as a church—and it is one I will never forget.

New Life Fellowship Church, for almost four years, had saved and prayed to buy the building we had been renting for eight years. It was a 60,000-square-foot Elks Lodge in the center of Queens, New York City. We thought we had agreed on terms with the owners, but at the final hour, a large developer came in to offer a deal we could not match. When the building owners broke our agreement, we suddenly went

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