Recently while at our church reading group,we discussed the subject of emotions.
Fr.Peter said that from a psychological standpoint emotions are illogical.
Well this would be true since neither happy nor sad is anything but pure feelings.
Now don't get me wrong we has human beings are made to be emotional,if we were not we would not have all the physical attributes needed to not only emotionally and mentally feel such feelings,but also biologically exhibit chemical releases to such emotions.
According to some we are fallen from grace.When humanity was ordered out of the garden of Eden,we became the emotional beings we are today.
Is God emotional?
We'll I'm sure in some ways he is.
When he sent his son,Jesus,to earth to live the life of a human being,he was able to feel what his creations feel,his trinity,was exposed to our human emotions.
With that said to assign God feelings is to limit him and he is limitless.
When we were still in the womb,we were given from God his spark of life and love.We are finite but God is infinite,so how great must his love be can not be comprehended by our simple humanness.
One thing I do know is if I have feeling it is because God made me this way and for whatever reason he felt it to be very important in my being.
Are feelings logical? No they are not,but in order for us to love one another,as we are told by God to do,we must be able to feel emotions both good and bad.
We are made to group up with others,not to be alone.
In order to become a united part of others we must be able to empathise and forgive.
Feeling great heights of sadness allows us to feel great heights of joy.In order to be a full and real person we must be willing to wade in the waters of our emotions.
One of the shortest sentences in the bible is "Jesus wept" why did he weep? because it was a human thing to do,it gave him a deep impression of what we as humans bear in our hours of grief.
God knows we are illogical and emotional people or he would not have made us this way.
Many times we spend a great deal of our day in constant battle between our emotions and self control.
The one thing I know about emotions is they are forever with us and we spend a life time in a balancing act,trying to figure out were we fit in and keeping our free will in check.
In order to be a follower of Christ we must learn to deny our selves both emotionally and physically.
Now with that said no where in the Bible does God say we are not to feel our emotions,he just wants us to feel less about us and more about others.
To the extent we have emotions about us we need to take those feelings and empathize and help those around us.
Jesus felt passions like fear,love,anger and even desperation when his human life was threatened,but he also understood how to over come and move forward,to do what he was being asked to do for the greater good of others.
How you may ask did he do this? Through prayer,even in the garden during his darkest moment,Jesus knelt down.He prayed,he wept and he even tried to bargain,but in the end God understood and gave his son the strength he needed to finish the story.
And that is how we are also able to gain control of our irrational feelings and fears.
Jesus was sent to us not just to save us,but to be an example of how we illogical, irrational,feeling filled people are to live a correct lifestyle in unison with not only God but those around us.
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