Finding Emotional Health Amidst Life's Challenges

Show grace to myself and others. I need to show grace to myself and to others. To make it through this crisis, you need to treat yourself, and you need to treat other people, the way God treats you. How does God treat you? Graciously. With grace. With mercy. With forgiveness. God always gives us what we need, not what we deserve. If I got what I deserved, I wouldn't even be here. He gives us what we need. That's called grace. [00:08:17]

God loves to give us more grace. He opposes the prideful, but He gives grace to the humble. God loves to give grace. He opposes the prideful, but He gives grace to the humble. Why does God oppose the prideful and the arrogant? 'Cause they think they can do it all by themselves. They don't think they need God, they don't think they need God's grace, they don't think they need His mercy or forgiveness. [00:08:57]

Start and end each day refueling my soul. You need to start and end every day, during this pandemic, refueling, recharging, renewing, refilling your soul. Now, what's your soul? Your soul is your mind, it's your will, your ability to make choices, and it's your emotions, the way you think, the way you feel, and the way you choose. [00:11:48]

So how do you refuel your soul? By getting into God's Word every day. Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word from the mouth of God." You recharge, this is soul food. The more you get in this book, the more you're gonna recharge, refill, refuel your soul. James talks about this. James chapter one verse 21, he says, "Humbly accept God's word planted in your heart. It is able to save your souls." [00:12:41]

Set and stick with a routine. Okay, set and stick with a routine. Now, if you're out of work and you've been asked to shelter at home, you probably haven't had a routine for a while. Because it wasn't get up, get to work, take the kids to school, whatever. Predictability is an important stress reducer. Do you hear that? Especially when everything is constantly changing. [00:17:53]

Routine develops resilience. Routine develops resilience. Predictability creates stability. Structure creates steadiness. This is especially important for kids, but it's important for everybody. You need to set and stick with a routine for the duration of this pandemic. Now, a crisis, which we're going through right now, should include what Dr. Bruce Perry calls dosing and spacing. [00:19:23]

Stop watching so much news. Stop watching so much news. 'Cause it's all negative right now. And for your own mental, and emotional, and spiritual health, you need to monitor your media intake. I know it's easy to get glued to the internet, glued to social media, get glued to the TV, 24-hour news channels. But if you fill your mind with constant images of negative news, and they're just saying the same thing over and over, it's going to deplete your reserves, it's gonna raise your stress level. [00:21:06]

What I see is what I become. What I see is what I become. And if you become a news junkie during this pandemic, you're adding stress to your life. You're not reducing stress watching the news, you're adding stress. You've heard me say before, if you look at the world, you'll be distressed. If you look within, you'll be depressed. If you look at Christ, you'll be at rest. [00:22:42]

Schedule a daily connection with the people I love. You need to schedule a daily connection with the people you love. You need to stay connected to your community. You know, all of our campuses at Saddleback, we're doing it Together Tuesday, where we get together just to see each other. It's not a Bible study, it's a time to just fellowship. Because you need to schedule time to be connected to the people you love during this pandemic. [00:26:17]

I refill my cup by connecting with the people I love. That's just a flat out fact. I refill my emotional, my spiritual cup, by reconnecting with the people that I love. Now, how should you do this? Well, the best way, of course, is technology that allows you to see them. So if you use Zoom, or you use Skype, or you use FaceTime, where you can actually see their faces, that's best 'cause so much of our connection is body language. [00:26:55]

Did you know that when Paul, the apostle Paul, 2,000 years ago, was quarantined, and when he was isolated in a Roman prison, and he was literally chained to a Roman guard 24 hours a day, that means no privacy, how would you like to be chained to a Roman guard 24 hours a day and in prison, zero privacy? Do you know how Paul used his time of isolation? He wrote encouraging letters to his friends. And the result, we got this, the New Testament. [00:28:10]

Speak encouraging words to each other. That's what you wanna do when you connect with people. Speak encouraging, not discourage, encouraging words to each other. Build up hope. That's what you wanna do. Build up hope so you'll all be together in this, with no one left out. Using phones, using letters, using cards, using social media, using the internet, using Zoom, he says, "Okay, you'll all be together in this with nobody left out and no one left behind." [00:29:02]