Expand your personal or group study of emotional maturity with these additional resources that support the content of The Wisdom of Your Heart: Discovering the God-given Purpose and Power of Your Emotions, organized by chapter.
Note: All the book links go directly to Amazon. These are affiliate links. If you buy a book via one of these links I will get an infinitesimal kick-back which I promise to use to buy more books.
Chapter 1: You Can’t Run Forever
Intro Video “The Missing Piece”
Course 1. “The Wisdom of Your Heart.” If you’d like a little accountability and assistance in reading the book, I offer a 6-week video course that walks you through the key themes of the book. This is the first of 4 courses that did into the book’s content, and this first one is free for your individual or group use.
Journaling – I mention journaling in TWOYH many times. Journaling has been lifesaving for me. In Chapter 16, I offer a specific journaling process for uncovering the wisdom within your emotions, but if you’re interested in journaling for spiritual growth, more generally, here are a few resources:
The 1 Practice that Has Helped me Grow the Most – Presently, subscribers to my blog get a 6-week email course on how to journal for spiritual growth. Details here.This material will probably become a book at some point.
Journal Keeping. A resource site on journaling for Christian growth. Luann Budd wrote a book on journaling for Christian growth that is quite good. This website offers a lot of answers to questions, advice, and resources for journaling. There’s lots that’s helpful here.
Journal Tools – You can journal in any method you prefer. Here’s what I use:
Day One App – I do all my daily journaling in Day One. It’s excellent. Beautiful to use, simple, secure, searchable, and synced between all my devices.
Evernote – Before switching to Day One, I did all my journaling in Evernote. I still use Evernote for all my non-journaling notes. It’s a high-quality, multi-platform app.
Chapter 2: A Crazy Prophet and My Hidden Shattering
Intro Video “What We Have to Lose?”
Course 2 “Uncovering the Story that Shapes your Emotions.“ If you’d like to spend some time digging deeper into the idea that the stories we carry about our lives shape our emotions and experiences, this course will be helpful for you. This course is designed for an individual who wants to go deeper into exploring this part of their lives.
Course 2 “Uncovering the Story that Shapes your Emotions.” If you’d like to spend some time digging deeper into the idea that the stories we carry about our lives shape our emotions and experiences, this course will be helpful for you. This course is designed for an individual who wants to go deeper into exploring this part of their lives.
Christoplatonism – Apparently, this word was coined by Randy Alcorn. I’ve been using the word for awhile without knowing that, but it’s the perfect description of the hidden dualism that is implicit in much of evangelical Christianity, that is in fact anti-Biblical. More on this:
Another presentation by Alcorn on the influence of Greek philosophy on Christian theology. The Greek concept that the body is bad influenced Christian theology, and this idea isn’t Biblical. Much of the emotional repression in the church is the fruit of this flawed view. About 4 min.
Other Helpful Books Relevant to this Chapter:
Feel: The Power of Listening to Your Heart, by Matthew Elliot. This is a book that was recommended to me, when I was in deeply painful places, and it was one of the influences that started me on the journey of learning about emotion in scripture.
Faithful Feelings: Rethinking Emotion in the New Testament, by Matthew Elliot. Feel, the book I recommend above, is a popular treatment of the subject that will work for most every reader. Faithful Feelings, on the other hand, is a bit more academic. If you’re wanting to study the topic deeply, I recommend this one too.
Chapter 5: An Emotional Jesus
Intro Video “An Emotional Jesus?”
Curt Cloninger, “God Views” sketches. This Youtube video is a short intro to the “God Views” Sketch that I refer to in the introduction of chapter 5. There is a short appearance of the “God in a box” at about 2 minutes in.
Other Helpful Books Relevant to this Chapter:
Jesus’ Emotions in the Gospels, by Stephen Voorwinde. This is an academic treatment of the subject that is thorough. If you’re wanting to really capture the full topic with some deep study, go here.
The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name. By Sally Lloyd-Jones. Children’s Bibles are notoriously problematic, with glossed-over theology and often a moralistic viewpoint that’s absent from the original text. Lloyd-Jones has done something stunning with this one, though. This is beautiful from start to finish, telling so many of the stories in scripture–even difficult ones–with grace, and always with an emphasis on how this story leads us to Jesus. I have used this Bible repeatedly with adults because it’s just so good at giving a Jesus-centered overview of scripture, and a much wider and more nuanced picture of God. I cannot recommend it enough.
Chapter 7: The Breathtaking Affection of an Infinite Heart
Rich Mullins song, The Love of God.”I opened Chapter 7 quoting this song because it is one of the most compelling descriptions of the love of God in all it’s vastness and nuance I’ve ever come across. Rich Mullins was a unique and prophetic musical voice, and I still feel sadness about his unexpected death. If you’re not familiar, take a listen. His lyrics are a treasure that have taught me, lifted me, mentored me, and helped me to see God better for years.
Thoughts on the Unmoved Mover theory. Originally this phrase came from St. Augustine’s argument for the existence of God. Essentially he argued that since everything in this universe depends on cause-and-effect, there cannot be an infinite chain of causes. Somewhere, at some point, someone must have caused the first caused. That “someone” is God, the original cause, the One who Moved everything to happen. Thus, the label “the unmoved mover.” A concise description of the argument can be found here. However, this label has long ago taken on meaning well beyond Augustine’s arguments for the existence of God. For us today, one of the implications of this idea is the idea that God cannot be moved, or emotionally impacted. That’s what I address in TWOYH.
The Attributes of God. In chapter 7 I talk about the 3 classic “Omni” attributes of God. Omnipresence, Omnipotence, and Omniscience. These have been long discussed by Christian theologians and philisophers. For a quick, helpful, summary check out this page that catalogues the attributes of God and how they have been defined over time. This page also defined Immutability and Impassability, two concepts about God that have put a damper on our understanding of emotions. Note that these are not Biblical definitions, but a summary of how philosophers and theologians have used these terms over time.
Other Helpful Books Relevant to this Chapter:
God is Impassable and Impassioned: Toward a Theology of Divine Emotion. By Rob Lister. This is definitely a book by a theologian, and so not every reader will find it easy reading. But this is a great discussion of the issue I raised about the “impassability of God” and the clear presentation in scripture of God’s emotions.
Chapter 8: Reason’t Secret and Emotion’s Purpose
Intro Video “Emotion’s Powerful Purpose”
The story of Elliot. Here’s a fascinating deep-dive interview with Dr. Damasio where he tells the story of Elliot, and talks about his understanding of emotions and the brain. About an hour.
Debunking the Left Brain / Right Brain Myth. This common misperception is everywhere. Here are a few credible places you can read about this. Here, hereandhere.
Other Helpful Books Relevant to this chapter:
The Journey of desire, By John Eldredge. Easy to read and engaging, Eldredge lays out a clear picture of how desire functions in our lives as Christians. It’s not just about temptation! It lies at the heart of every good thing we do, too.
Descartes Error: Emotions, Reason, and the Human Brain, By Antonio Damasio. I mention Dr. Damasio and his work with Elliot at the beginning of chapter 8. His books are definitely academic, but well written and full of interesting illustrations and examples. His work is vital for our current best understanding of how emotions work.
Chapter 9: Your Emotions Always Tell You the Truth…
Course 3 “Under the Hood of Your Emotions” If you’re interested in going deeper into how our emotions work, and what our different emotions mean, this course will be helpful to you. Designed for an individual to go deeper with video, short readings, and journal exercises, this course will help you grow in your understanding of your emotions.
Other Helpful Books Relevant to this Chapter:
Let Your Life Speak: Listening For the Voice of Vocation. By Parker Palmer. This great little book encourages you to listen to your intuition as you make decisions about your life’s path, but this isn’t a simple do-what-you-feel message. It’s about looking for the way that God has already spoken in your life.
The Feeling Brain: The Biology and Psychology of Emotions, Johnston and Olson. This is a stunningly good work, a must-read for people who really want to understand in a deep way what is going on under the hood of their emotions.
True to Our Feelings: What Our Emotions Are Really Telling Us. By Robert Solomon. Solomon is one of the foremost emotional theorists. This is also an academic work, but very readable considering. He covers the full gamut of human emotions, discussing what they mean, from a cultural, biological and developmental standpoint.
Chapter 10: Seeing the Inner Workings
Dr. Paul Ekman’s studies. Dr. Ekman is the world-renowned scientist who has studies emotions and micro-expressions. I mention him in Chapter 10 as being the model for the protagonist on the TV series “Lie To Me.” His work is part of the body of work that shows how much our bodies are involved in our emotions, and how in fact our emotions are demonstrably present in our bodies before our conscious minds are even aware of the feelings we are having.
A great interview with Dr. Ekman about his work. Including this insightful quote: “Crucial to how we feel is being aware of how we are feeling in the moment. The sine qua non of that is to realize that you are being emotional in the first place. The earlier you recognize an emotion, the more choice you will have in dealing with it.”
Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions. Dr. Plutchik is one of the theorists who have categorized emotions. Of course this is more art than science, but it is very helpful for some people to give them language to explain what they are feeling.
Plutchik’s 3D Wheel. This site offers a simple explanation and visual of the wheel.
An excellent 2-part blog post explaining Plutchik’s 8 basic emotions and how to use them in understanding ourselves.
Download: My Basic Emotions Chart. This Infographic includes a formatted version of what’s in Chapter 10. You can print it and keep a copy in your journal. I did for a couple of years.
The Emotions, By Dr. Robert Plutchik. This is the seminal academic work where Plutchik laid out his model of understanding emotions. Definitely not for everyone!
Chapter 11: When You’re Called to Fight
More on the Amygdala in it’s role in our lives and emotions:
Anger: Taming A Powerful Emotion, By Gary Chapman. A practical book that deals specifically with anger, with a very balanced Christian perspective.
The Anger Workbook. By Les Carter & Frank Minirth. A practical step-by-step guide for processing and learning about anger. From a Christian perspective.
The Dialectical Behavioral Therapy Skills Workbook for Anger. By Chapman & Gratz. DBT is a fairly common model of therapy for emotional issues. This workbook offers a number of exercises that are quite helpful for anyone facing high levels of recurring anger, whether in therapy or not.
Unafraid: Moving Beyond Fear-based Faith. By Benjamin Corey. Many Christians have a faith that is tightly tangled with fear. Fear of God, fear of hell, fear of non-Christians, fear of doing the wrong thing. Corey challenges this kind of faith, and offers a path forward for a faith that is built on hope and love.
The Dialectical Behavioral Therapy Skills Workbook for Anxiety. By Chapman & Gratz. DBT is a fairly common model of therapy for emotional issues. This workbook offers a number of exercises that are quite helpful for anyone facing high levels of recurring anxiety and fear, whether in therapy or not.
Chapter 13: When You Want, Have and Lose
How grieving is like going to the bathroom. In Chapter 13 I mention a friend of mine who has coined an excellent illustration about grief. Here he is explaining it in a video where he discusses the death of his son, Zayne, with his other son Zach. (14 min. vid.) Language warning.
Other Helpful Books Relevant to this Chapter:
The View From a Hearse, By Joseph Bayley. A very personal study of grief from a dad who lost three of his children.
A Grief Observed. By C.S. Lewis. This powerful testimony about grief comes from the very personal experience of C.S. Lewis losing his wife. One of the most important things in grief is knowing that you are not alone.
Chapter 14: When You’ve Got What You Want
Other Helpful Books Relevant to this Chapter:
Boundaries, by Cloud & Townsend. This is a long-time classic. It’s not about happiness exactly, but so many of the places of pain in our life comes when we fail to live with healthy boundaries. The wisdom in this book is an enormous boost toward peaceful and happy living.
Happiness, by Randy Alcorn. I’ve never come across a theological study on happiness before. This is definitely coming from a conservative Evangelical perspective, but it’s quite interesting to see the full range of scripture on the topic of happiness.
The Ragamuffin Gospel, By Brennan Manning. Not directly about compassion, but this book cracked open the hard shell of my heart, and opened my life to the overwhelming grace of God for me. If you haven’t read it, you should.
Chapter 16: Learning To Pay Attention
Course 4. “Learning to Listen to Emotion’s Truth.” If the 5A process for reflecting on your emotions sounds helpful, you may find this course useful. I will teach you how to use the 5A process step-by-step with additional examples and insights that can help you really internalize the process.
Download: The 5A’s Process Infographic. This Infographic includes a formatted graphical summary of the 5 A’s including the key questions to help you process through each step.
Subscribe to the Apprenticeship Notes newsletter (More Info Here) and get The Anchor Prayer, a free little book (7-chapters, about 15,000 words) introducing a prayer and a process for staying grounded in a chaotic world.
Course 1. “The Wisdom of Your Heart.” If you’d like a little accountability and assistance in reading the book, I offer a 6-week video course that walks you through the key themes of the book. This is the first of 4 courses that did into the book’s content, and this first one is free for your individual or group use.
