The Gift of Emotions

Who doesn’t want to be happy?  I think most if not all of us have the wish and desire for happiness in life.  I certainly do. 

But, I know as you know that happiness is elusive because happiness is getting what we want, and we don’t always get what we want.

Happiness is a fleeting emotion.  The feeling doesn’t last long even when we get what we want. 

Nevertheless, we are supposed to be happy!  Our culture fosters that idea.  I once attended a church service during a time when I was between pastorates. I was really low.  I was so low that I was reaching up to touch rock bottom.  I didn’t need to hear the worship leader say, “Some of you look sad.  Don’t look sad!  Be happy.  Come on everybody, how about a big smile to start the service today?”  I felt sick.  I felt like I just wanted to get up and leave.  My happiness machine was broken and wasn’t going to generate any happiness for a while.  I had to work through some things and get my mind and emotions around what had caused my despair.     You can’t be happy when you’re sad even when the worship leader tells you to be happy.  Instead, I needed the freedom to feel all of my emotions pouring over me which included anger, sad, loneliness, and hurt. 

God made us emotional.  They are a gift. Receive them.  Experience them fully.  I think this is part of what Jesus meant when He said that He gives life fully and abundantly (John 10:10).  Full living is to fully experience the emotional pain of hurt, sadness, loneliness, and other emotions instead of self-medicating with alcohol or building a wall around the heart to block the unpleasant, painful ones.

Let go and experience the emotion of hurt which speaks to our desire for healing and wholeness.  Sadness speaks to our need to grieve and accept life on life’s terms.  Loneliness speaks to our deep desire for relationship with God and others.  These are not bad emotions but good ones because emotions lead us to the understanding that we not complete within ourselves. 

Emotions point us to our need for a love-relationship with God and true friends for encouragement and support completing in us what is lacking.  I think this is what Jesus meant by a full, complete and meaningful life. 

Emotions tell us that we are alive and that life has meaning. I feel; therefore, I’m alive.

To be alive is to experience the gift of emotions and understand what they are telling us. 

Understanding them helps gives life meaning.  Jesus certainly experienced his emotions.  He didn’t build a wall around his heart.  He wept at the tomb of Lazarus. He hurt when thousands left him after feeding them. He experienced loneliness in the Garden when he longed for his disciples to pray with him.

Gladness, as fleeting as it is, comes too when we walk through the pain, listen to the heart, and fully feel all of the emotions that make us human.  Jesus walked through grief, hurt, loneliness and much more.  Gladness came and went and came again for him.  He experienced his emotions deeply and fully in his humanity.  He showed that all of our emotions mysteriously weave and work together making the heart into a beautiful tapestry.    

(Special thanks to Chip Dodd’s insights from his book, The Voice of the Heart.)  Click link to preview and order Dodd's book from Amazon.

Click the arrow in the embedded video or click this link for "I Give You My Heart" by Hillsong.