CRI March 2021 Resource
Hank: During these challenging times I think we can all use a stout dose of renewal. Please send the selected resource below and use my partnering gift to continue equipping and transforming lives through the renewal of minds (Rom. 12:2).
Description
Description
“Drawing deeply from Scripture and the wisdom of the ancient Church, Father (Dr.)
Nicholas and Presvytera (Dr.) Roxanne Louh inspire you to grow in relationship with
the Lover of your soul, expel guilt, receive peace, nurture life and health in personal
relationships, and aspire to spiritual and emotional maturity for the greater benefit of
the Kingdom of God. I highly recommend this book!”
—Hank Hanegraaff, president of the Christian Research Institute and host of
the Bible Answer Man broadcast and the Hank Unplugged podcast
Renewing YOU: A Priest, a Psychologist, and Plan, written by a husband and wife team — the husband a priest and the wife a psychologist — Father (Dr.) Nicholas Louh and Dr. Roxanne Louh provide priceless insights into how to find personal renewal in these challenging times.
Here’s just an excerpt for those feeling that they’re “grounded” when they’re yearning deeply to once again take flight:
“Do you want to live a visionary life of purpose and meaning? Do you want to live in Christ
with a sense of purpose and peace? Most of you will answer “yes.” And yet, rather than
soaring to spiritual heights, we often remain grounded — emotionally and spiritually
“stuck” in our harmful habits and attitudes. From the time we leave our childhoods behind,
our lives are like books with each chapter presenting new challenges, and in some chapters,
we resort to unhealthy coping mechanisms in order to manage life’s tough moments. Even
though the difficulties we face offer us opportunities to draw nearer to Christ and thus
be lifted above the weight of our struggles and disappointments, we can find ourselves
repeatedly wingless and unable to take flight.”
Echoing the notion that ‘vision is the force that creates the future,’ the Louhs write:
Do you see yourself possessing the energy to impact your world the way you’ve always
wanted? Do you see yourself on the other side of a tragedy, truly living again rather than
nursing old wounds? The spiritual vision we set before our eyes will determine the kind
of life we will live and the kind of choices we will make. Our choices spring from our
thoughts, our thoughts tend to follow our minds, and our minds are shaped by our vision.
(emphasis added)
The Louhs tackle a number of these persistent distortions (see the book for details) and provide tips on how we can neutralize them by taking “mindfulness breaks” and learning to live more mindfully. What are these distortions?
- Extreme (Black/White) Thinking — absolutist thinking like “always,” “never,” “all,”
and “none” that rarely accurately reflects reality. - Overgeneralization — drawing drastic conclusions often far beyond what the evidence
warrants. - Magnification — overlooking the positive and magnifying the negative.
- Jumping to conclusions — apparently the only exercise some people get! Checking our
assumptions allows us to test them before drawing potentially erroneous conclusions. - Emotional reasoning — our emotions can easily lead us astray, and truth is what is, not
necessarily how we feel. - Catastrophizing — the tendency to imagine the worst-case scenario. (A friend jokingly
talks about people who have the gift of ‘enlightenment’: they can lighten up a room just
by leaving!) - Personalization — taking things that have nothing to do with us and making them all
about us!
Concluding each chapter of Renewing You with a prayer and questions for reflection and discussion, they write in the final chapter, “Soaring is Possible! From Our Heart to Yours”: “What brings us success in this world has more to do with our ability to persevere through challenges than it does with our innate abilities. Your birth was not an accident — there was nothing random about it. God has equipped you with gifts that will enable you to leave a mark in your family, your workplace, and your community. Your part is to stay the course!”
Additional Info
Additional information
March 2021 Resources | Renewing YOU: A Priest, a Psychologist, and a Plan |
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