HARD FEELINGS PODCAST | Episode 5 | Dr. Emery Cummins

Professional therapists from our community join host Evan Gratz on the Point Loma Church Podcast to further discuss the topics covered in the Hard Feelings Sermon Series. Look for "Point Loma Church" wherever you get your podcasts.

The podcast is also available in video form on our YouTube Channel

Evan Gratz, Director of Community Life, welcomes our fifth professional, Emeritus Professor of Counseling at San Diego State University, Dr. Emery Cummins to the Hard Feelings Podcast, where they discuss emotional maturity.

Emotional Maturity: "Becoming Whole in Christ" sermon by Rev. Karla Shaw

Additional resources related to this week's topic:

1. Peck, M. Scott. The Road Less Traveled. Simon & Schuster, 1979. 

This extraordinary book begins with the statement, "Life is difficult." Life was never meant to be easy and is essentially a series of problems that can either be solved or ignored. He shows how these techniques enable the pain of problems to be worked through and systematically solved, thereby producing growth. He argues that most people try to avoid the pain of dealing with their problems, when it is through facing the pain of problem-solving that life becomes more satisfying and meaningful.

2. Frankl, Viktor. Man’s Search for Meaning. Beacon Press, 2000 

First published in 1946, Dr. Frankl recounts his experiences surviving the death camps of the Holocaust and describes how it gave him a new understanding of the way people find meaning for their lives. According to Frankl, one can find meaning in work, in love for another, and in the courage required to endure suffering. While passing through the darkest pits of the human capacity for evil, he didn’t emerge angry, resentful, or nihilistic; rather, he was encouraged, optimistic, and hopeful by observing what he describes as man’s ultimate freedom and responsibility—to choose one’s atitude in any given set of circumstances.

3. Martin, James. The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything. HarperOne, 2012.

While not primarily addressed to the non-believer, non-believers will profit from reading this book for an intelligent, rational explanation on why it is important to pray, to examine one's actions, and to hold those actions up to a higher standard. Martin is unlike most contemporary American religious writers. Rather than offering words of disapproval and judgment, he writes words of understanding, wisdom, justice, acceptance, and love. The Jesuit Guide is not only filled with helpful advice on living the examined life, but it faithfully describes Christianity as a place of hope, faith, and caring.