A Stephen Ministry Update: We are in our tenth week of training and the twelve of us are now fully engaged in a learning environment about how to implement a ministry of caring in our church for those in need. Recently our lesson was on feelings and incorporated some of the reflections below:
Ask yourself: “What would your relationship with others be like without feelings – without love, desire, or affection?”
Living without feelings would be like seeing the world as only flat, two dimensional, black and white images. Life would be colorless and void of meaning. I doubt that humankind would even survive without feelings.
But God has given us the precious gift of feelings. God created us as people who have been given a wide variety of feelings and whatever the feeling might be, we always benefit from having someone to share our feelings with.
We are being reminded in our training that it takes a lot of courage sometimes for people to face their true feelings, but facing them is necessary to experience healing and wholeness.
Our group recently reflected upon the example Jesus gave us in order to consider how we might be able to help others face their feelings. Jesus himself shared the wide variety of feelings we experience. He loved his family, enjoyed a wedding celebration, and even felt the satisfaction of a hard day’s work and a full belly! He also suffered the most painful feelings people ever have. He knows what it is like to be rejected, isolated and even hated by others. As a result, we can be sure there is no feeling that God doesn’t understand. He’s been there, and he knows what we are experiencing in our own lives. He shares our feelings and gives us courage to live through them. Thanks be to God!
Please continue to pray for your Stephen Ministers in training!
Rick
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