Runaway Emotions by Jeff Schreve
When I first saw this title available on the BookSneeze
site, I was hooked by the title.
Immediately I wanted to review it because emotions play such an integral
part in my life, at times they get away from me also. The goal of the book is to ‘explore the
potentially positive impact of those troublesome negative emotions that you’d
prefer to discard…..God wants to show you exactly what is wrong so you can
effectively deal with the source of the problem, and not waste time masking the
symptoms’ (xv). The type of skirting
around the source of the problem with focusing on symptoms is part of the hard
work of dealing with your emotions and not an easy task by any stretch. In the book, Jeff deals with eight topics
ranging from embarrassment to depression and seeks to use biblical wisdom and
counsel to open up these negative states and how they push us to see how they
can build up a positive impact.
I wanted to say first that I think Jeff really spent some
time in seeking to be very concrete and practical in his understanding of the
various issues. In his chapter on embarrassment,
Jeff cuts against the notion that we can build self-worth by verbal
commendations or self-talk. Rather, he
looks to Jesus for the foundation of our infinite worth by writing, “All those
who have received Christ as Savior and Lord and have been born into the family
of God have infinite worth as well. And
when you really begin to grapple with that truth, when the incredible reality
of it begins to settle into the cracks and crevices of your soul, it will
change the way you see yourself” (9).
Heaping praise upon yourself only goes so far, but resting in the
reality of Christ’s death and resurrection on our behalf puts infinite value
into proper perspective. By working
through some key teachings of the Scripture (image bearers, future with
Christ), Jeff situates our self-worth with King Jesus, who makes us his own
sons and daughters. What this does for
our emotional embarrassment is pushes us to flee to God in our times of exasperation,
asking God to remind us of His promises and that he has not once thought of us
as unworthy or second class.
My favorite chapter of the book was the last one on
depression. As a person who suffers from
depression, I needed some help in dealing with this issue. By looking at depression from a mental,
spiritual, and physical lens, Jeff was able to clearly identify the times when
depression is most acute in people. I
resonated with his wisdom about not blowing off the Sabbath and keeping rest on
that day (199). Our bodies are designed
to come apart at the seams if we run it all day, every day. Furthermore, I was encouraged to see that
Jeff and his wife Debbie consciously chose to bring praise music into their
lives during a very difficult time. It
is often the daily choices we make that help build our muscles to fight off
temptation and despair in times of weakness.
In a different light, learning to receive compliments without thinking
something negative can be a hard road but a necessary one.
I didn’t agree with the way Jeff interpreted some biblical
passages but his overall presentation about turning our negative emotions into
opportunities for growth is a great word of wisdom. I recommend this book to anyone dealing with
the volatility of their emotions and wanting to find some freedom in bringing
them before God.
Thanks to BookSneeze and Thomas Nelson for the free copy of
this book in exchange for review.
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