Have you ever felt like something is missing? Perhaps you “have it all” (wife, kids, job, etc.) and yet you aren’t loving life? Maybe you go through the motions and pretend that all is well when it just isn’t. There are other times when you are quite aware that nothing is going well. Regardless of the situation or circumstances of life we end up feeling somewhat empty.
What’s missing is having our emotional needs met. This doesn’t make us weak or less of a man or woman, it makes us human. We all have needs, physical, intellectual, spiritual and yes, emotional. While we can have all of those other needs met in many ways, emotional needs are only met within relationships. Relationships are incomplete and often broken. We don’t have anywhere to fix them or even learn them in the first place. Thus, we end up feeling alone.
This website has been dedicated to this exact problem. But this blog alone is not enough. Thus, I have exciting news! One week from today we will be launching a podcast centered around this topic. We will be discussing all of the things in life that leave us feeling empty but also those things that lift us up. We will be talking about the greatest of moments where many rejoiced and also the times where we mourned, both alone and with others. We will laugh, cry, teach, and learn.
Who is we? Valid question. Well, there will be me. I had a life changing time at the Center for Relational Care in Austin, Texas. It was there where I learned about emotional needs. I learned about how we all feel lonely. I was taught about and how to comfort. I have since taught over 50 couples how to love each other in a 1 on 1 or small group basis. None of them have gone through a divorce…yet (I’m holding on to this great stat). I spend 5 minutes each Sunday at my church teaching the congregation how to love through meeting emotional needs. I have written almost 500 blog posts about this topic. I have been blessed to survive the loss of a child through the understanding of comfort, grief, and healing. However, I am not alone (see what I did there)?
Eric Hammond is a very dear friend (brother really) of mine. I was blessed to teach him and his wife about this. When we started, he wouldn’t have said, “poop” if he had a mouth full of it. He was unable to put together words to match his feelings, if he was able to discern them at all. Now, years later, his marriage is a testimony to God’s grace and provision for those who call upon his name. Eric is one of my two longest and most accomplished “students” of emotional needs. His marriage is the one I hold up as an example for how this works.
Brian Herr is yet another of my closest friends. I have only gotten to know him well in the past few years. Brian has been through it all. He was born and raised in a great, loving, Christian home and somehow he didn’t always make the best choices. He was surrounded by loving people but he found himself pulling away from them and being on the outside. As we’ve gotten to know each other Brian has become passionate for loving people by meeting them where they are. He and I had an “aha” moment this summer where we were talking about his life. We were able to connect the dots to significant emotional moments in times of his life and how they impact him today. Brian is a true “man’s man” and yet has become so aware of the emotional needs that even the most accomplished and “tough” people have.
The podcast is called, “Lunchtime in Rome.” It is based on Romans 12:15 (get it? Lunchtime in Rome would be around 12:15? Hanging out and sharing life while enjoying a good meal?). Lunchtime in Rome is a podcast where we explore how to keep each other from feeling alone. We talk about how our relationships can be more of what we want them to be, and not what they have devolved into being. We will laugh, explore, and talk about the things no one ever really does.
I hope you will join us. Click here to follow our website and sign up to follow our podcast.