Posts Tagged: emotions

Dancing the Sanguine Blues

Forecast called for blistering blues . . .

Shame soaked in a raging torrent of emotions,

I put on defiant dancing shoes and

shaped prolific pools of hopelessness into

a halo of dancing rainbows.

Until bones broke to life and support the

impossible flesh of my reality.

 

Writing Prompt: Downcast or Upcast

 

 

Monday Mood Ring: Strangely Peaceful

Mood Colors: I’m Yellow today–I feel open to the possibilities of the day.

After an indescribably severe headache last night, I feel strangely peaceful this morning. Today will be what it will be. What color is your week starting with?

E-motions are a part of our transportation system, meant to take you to new places, but not meant to carry you away. God in heaven feels, and Jesus in the flesh certainly felt emotions. God would not have placed emotions in us, if they were not as important and as vital as our physical functions. Don’t ignore them or elevate them to god status. Let emotions join wisdom and reason in decision making. Logic without emotion tends to become cruel, and emotion without logic becomes lazy.

John 11:33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.

There is so much to learn here! How differently this miracle would look if Jesus had arrived, dismissed the emotions of the grievers and preformed the resurrection of Lazarus. That would have been to glorify himself. Jesus knew what he was about to do and yet his emotions matched the sisters and mourners grieving for Lazarus. Jesus’ emotions were just as logical as his knowledge that his heavenly father was about to do a great thing! His emotions made him relational to mankind and his logic puts our circumstances in the context of God’s perfect will.

We want to know: DOES GOD REALLY CARE ABOUT OUR PAIN, AND WHAT IS HE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

God chose to become a baby, who smiled, giggled, and cried at the often painfully stimulating world. He had moods, and yet he chose to place those moods in a broader context of God’s will. You and I may struggle with our emotions, but as we place our experiences in the context of an all powerful God who is relational, our emotions and logic become a powerhouse of love.

 

The Object of Our Agitation

My son was very agitated today about surface things that I could see had nothing to do with his anguish. Finally, I heard him sobbing in the other room. “Mommy I can’t stop crying.” I wrapped him up in my arm and rocked him as he continued to talk about the object of his concern, but quickly shifted to crying out for Jonathan. “I miss him so much!” he sobbed.

My heart broke for his grief! Oh Lord, equip me to comfort him. How many of us have those moments, we feel anxious about our broken toy, the car that just cut us off, the snow trapping us inside, the phone ringing–all the things that on another day wouldn’t bother us, but today it is just too much. All the time brewing beneath that agitation is real heart ache, longing, brokenness, fear, and sorrow.

Why did God create us with emotions? Emotions tend to squish out in strange ways when we deny them their purpose. I believe that our emotions were created to feel joy, pleasure, interact with each other and our God internally and externally–literally to be stirred by God. When the fall occurred our emotions were suddenly stirred by sin, which will always point to us away from God. But, we can learn to lay out our heartache, our pain before his throne so that he can replace our burden with healing. Our emotions always long to be in right relationship with God! Don’t be afraid to lift the veil to reveal your heartache to him, He longs to hold us, and is moved with compassion for our sufferings. He may prune away what we think is causing us grief to reveal the root.

If someone around you is agitated about things that don’t seem to match in value do a little gardening. Dig past the surface to the root pain; much easier to heal when we correctly identify the source of our anguish. It may just be as simple as being present with your loved one and listening, but it can make all the difference in the world.

Suicide & Prevention Hotline

National Suicide Hotline

If you or a loved one are in immediate danger, call the National Suicide Lifeline at 988 or go to the website at https://988lifeline.org/