Emotions are crazy, aren’t they? I’m even more keenly aware of the roller coaster emotions can be with a 12-year-old girl in the house. Drama much? Lord, help me!
Sometimes I think it would be easier if we didn’t have emotions. They’re up. They’re down. They’re all over the map in one day. They can be exhausting.
But God made us emotional creatures on purpose, so there’s no use fighting them. Or even apologizing for having them. It makes better sense to figure out what to do with them.
You know, God even has emotions. He loves. He rejoices. He mourns. He can be grieved and jealous and angry.
Emotions in and of themselves are not bad. Sometimes, if you are led by your emotions, you can make questionable decisions. They aren’t necessarily reliable and full of truth. But they aren’t bad.
Which brings us to the shortest verse in the Bible.
“Jesus wept.” (John 11:35)
But before that, Martha and Mary wept. They had sent for Him to heal their brother and He didn’t come. Their brother died. And they were angry and sad and upset.
Martha and Mary both came to Him crying and accusing him, “If You had been here, this would never have happened. Where were You? Why did our brother have to die?”
And Jesus comforted them. He encouraged them. He spoke peace to them. But never, not once, did he tell them not to be angry. Jesus never said not to cry. Not to express their emotions. In fact, He joined them. Jesus wept.
Emotions are indicators. They’re a sign of what’s going on inside and they need to be expressed in a healthy way.
Positive emotions, like joy and happiness, are usually expressed through smiling and laughter.
Sadness and grief usually flow out in tears. Sometimes thankfulness and gratitude flow in tears.
My husband performed a funeral for an elderly lady from our church on Sunday, and there were a lot of tears flowing. She was an amazing woman, and she’ll be missed.
And his advice to everyone was to grieve. It looks different for everyone and lasts longer for some than others. But don’t run away from it. Don’t stuff it. Don’t ignore it. Grieve. Cry. Get it out.
I had to pick my son up from school this week. He passed out, and he had apparently passed out a couple weeks prior somewhere else and didn’t mention it to me until then.
I stayed real calm at school. And on the drive home. And I went upstairs to tell my husband and cried. (Just being real…)
He had an appointment yesterday and will have some tests soon. We’ll get more information, and I always do better with information. But at that point, it was unknown and scary, and I expressed that in tears.
And Mikel comforted me, and the Holy Spirit reminded me of something I had read that morning in the Word about do not be disturbed…that He was with me. And peace came.
We don’t usually have a problem expressing the happy emotions. But those negative ones that are scary and hurt, we can tend to run from them and stuff them down and pretend they don’t bother us.
But that’s not healthy. Let it out. Cry. Scream into your pillow if you have to.
We think, “Well that’s not faith. Faith doesn’t cry. Faith stands strong and doesn’t waver.”
Well, Jesus was full of faith. He even knew He was about to raise Lazarus from the dead, and He still cried.
Mary and Martha took their emotions right to the Lord and expressed their anger and grief and confusion and hurt. And He brought comfort.
Jesus never said not to cry. He walked them through their grief and brought comfort in the midst of the pain and cried with them.
Life is life, and sometimes we hurt and get angry and grieve. It’s so good to know that we don’t have to walk through it alone. We can go to Him, and He will walk us through and bring comfort in the midst of pain and cry with us and give us the strength we need to go on another day.
It’s okay to have emotions. God made you that way. 🙂