Are Emotions True?

Jesus wept. (John 11:35)

I am an emotional person. My family has often said that we cry at K-Mart openings. I know that I cry often, sometimes happy and sometimes sad. I cry when I'm tired, hungry or lonely and hurt. I also laugh a lot and loudly. I get angry, frustrated, sad, and disgusted. I'm often embarrassed by my emotions and I have let them lead me into unwise choices.

Emotions are part of life and we all have them.  I've known people who don't seem to have any emotions but I know they do. Some allow emotions to overwhelm them. Some shove their emotions under and don't deal with them.

The bible never talks about Jesus laughing but His righteous anger is mentioned, His love, and His sadness and tears. Even when He knew that Lazarus would be raised from the dead, He still was emotional and wept. Why did He weep?  Maybe He wept because of all that He knew we would suffer, or for those around who were sad, maybe He felt their pain so strongly that He had to weep. Maybe He wept because He had to bring Lazarus back from such a wonderful place. We won't know until we know all. What we do know is that humans have emotions.

So I was thinking about my divorce.  It was many years ago and an extremely sad time. I loved and still love my ex-husband and I believe he loved me. The divorce started out amicable but in the end he became so angry and I truly believe that he now hates me. One day he loved me and the next, he hated me. Where did the love go? It was there, then it wasn't. 

It is amazing to me how one emotion can overpower another. I'm sure that you have experienced this too. One minute you are happy with life and the next, you are distraught about the way your life is going. Are these emotions true? Are they real? Are they affected by what we eat or how much sleep we got the night before? If life is exactly the same from one day to the next, why do we feel differently?

I know that it is possible to experience more than one emotion at a time.  I can be angry with my husband and know in my head that I still love him, but the emotion that overpowers the love is anger. The love, though, is the truth even though I don't always feel it.

So as I think about this, I come to the conclusion that emotions at times may not be real but that love, hate, anger, etc. are reactions to what happens and is affected by the things mentioned above. They are also choices we can make even when we don't feel them.  

Emotional reactions can be controlled with help from the Holy Spirit. We know that the fruit of Joy from  the Holy Spirit is eternal but worldly happiness is fleeting.  Christ said to rejoice in all things so it is clear that we can choose joy even when we are not feeling happy. 

Another fruit of the Holy Spirit is self-control and this is what we need to control our reactions, over-reactions, and emotions that, like with me, may lead us into bad choices. I am going to ask God for more self-control from the Holy Spirit and I hope you will too.

It is okay to feel, as Jesus did, but not to let those feelings control your life. He didn't break down and cry for hours. He moved on with love. He taught us that emotions are fine but we need to choose when and how to allow them into our lives. We have the mind of Christ and we are strong in Him.

If you are feeling something that yesterday you felt completely differently, take a long look at yourself and think about why one emotion has completed taken over. It is a weird subject but one that I know we can benefit from thinking about. I will be thinking about it. 

God Bless.