To Stir Up...

A few weeks ago, I posted about emotions and being honest with them and not trying to hide them. I promised more posts on that topic, yet here I am, weeks later...still struggling with how to be honest and open.  There are so many thoughts swimming in my head about this, so many emotional struggles that I'm wrestling with at the moment, so many things that I'm still learning, that I've been fighting with what words to say.  So bear with me while we figure this out together...

I talked briefly in that last post about realizing that my emotions are not a curse, not a hindrance, but instead are a gift; something that makes me more like my Creator, not something that pushes me further from Him. That, I think, has been the biggest lesson I've learned on this journey of emotional honesty.



I call myself a Christian - a Christ follower.  My goal every day is to become more like my Savior. So to realize that this part of myself that I've tried to push down and keep quiet is a vital part of the person of Christ was a wake up call. He didn't try to ignore his emotions - instead, he experienced them fully and used them for his Father's good.

If He is the example of how to live on this earth...shouldn't we consider that part of His life a pretty important one?

Jesus wept. ~ John 11:35
He wept. Outright. In front of His friends. Because His friend had died. He grieved, he mourned, and he let himself experience the overwhelming emotion that can sweep over you in those moments. He even knew that he would bring his friend back to life...but he was still emotional about it. Yet we try to choke back our tears - try to push down our grief, our pain, our hurt. We bottle it up because it makes us seem weak and out of control.

Here's what one of my favorite authors, Brendan Manning, had to say about this in one of my favorite books of his - Abba's Child: The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging:

"To ignore, repress, or dismiss our feelings is to fail to listen to the stirrings of the Spirit within our emotional life. Jesus listened. In John's Gospel we are told that Jesus was moved with the deepest emotions (11:33)... The gospel portrait of the beloved Child of Abba is that of a man exquisitely attuned to His emotions and uninhibited in expressing them. The Son of Man did not scorn or reject feelings as fickle and unreliable. They were sensitive antennae to which He listened carefully and through which He perceived the will of His Father for congruent speech and action."

A Deeper Understanding Means a Deeper Ministry
This is our example - one of a man, who is fully God, listening to what His emotions tell Him. A man who knew that they were important, that they were an essential part of serving His purpose well. He understood that, by understanding his emotions, He was more finely in tune with the world around him and with his Father; by allowing himself to experience joy and pain in a full manner, he was better equipped to celebrate and mourn with others...

This is something that even Paul understood well - just read Romans 12. He knew that this was an important part of Christ's life and, therefore, should be an important part of ours. In order to truly empathize (such an important distinction!), we must understand what our emotions are telling us. It's a hard process, but as we can see from Christ's life, it's an important one. The books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John are a vivid account of how Christ was sinless in living as an emotional being - even when he was angry (Matthew 21).

Now, I'm not saying that every emotion we feel should be allowed to overwhelm us...my point is simply that being sinless doesn't mean you have to be emotionless.

I freely admit that not all of my emotions are healthy and the ways that I treat them aren't either. But I have emotions that should be allowed to be experienced, to be felt, because they serve a purpose and they are a reflection of the One who made me.

The origin of the word "emotion" means "to stir up" or "to move" and I love that visual. My emotions are to push me towards something greater, to allow me and equip me to do His work...to be His hands and feet to those around me...to look more like Him.