This has been a question on my heart and mind in a small way, just a little side subject that ought to be examined. Maybe it's the podcast I am listening to which is currently featuring a speaker who is a Holocaust survivor.
I have nothing but deep admiration and awe for the Jewish people. Anyone who thinks that the holocaust is a myth has got to be utterly blind to the reality. If it is fake then it has got to be the biggest hoax of all history. And yet those people exist. Sorry for the tangent but it truly boggles my mind.
Now, its one thing to talk about the potential of finding a reason to rejoice in every day life and a entirely different conversation when it comes to not only keeping your faith in such a time as that, but to ever find joy through it. So I wondered, how can you? And another thought that feeds into that came from another podcast ( i think it was Family Life Today.....that or Focus on the Family), it was just an off hand comment in the interview but the speaker said that God does not ask us to deny our emotions. Ah. They quoted Paul when he says to rejoice and mourn with one another (Romans 12:15). There is the passage in Ecclesiastes too, a well known one, that says for everything there is a season (Ecc. 3) and in verse four specifically states, "a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance." I think learning to be joyful, then, is partially about learning when that time is. Sometimes, its just not a good time for you to cheer up your friend or even yourself after a great loss. There is also a time when its been too long, the mourning time is over and the joy needs to be known again.
Another emotion we are not called to deny is Anger. In Colossians 3 it does say "But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips" because we are new being in Christ. He is also entreating us, in total, to put off old ways because of that newsness in Christ. So it makes sense that Paul would go on to say in Ephesians 4 that "In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry... Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice... Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you." As I have heard Joyce Meyer point out, it says "WHEN you get angry" here is how you handle it. OoooOooo I like a How To! Why? Because we are still human being who are gonna mess up. IT'S GONNA HAPPEN! God knows that, He's not sitting in Heaven shocked and ashamed of you, His grace, love and forgiveness is never ending. Calm down, work it out in an honest, caring way and forgive each other. Honestly, to know that God doesn't have the crazy expectation that I will be devoid of all emotion is a huge weight off my shoulders. Even Jesus got angry, and in public too! He was pretty openly pissed off in the temple situation, turning tables and all that (Matt 21:12). I feel slightly better throwing that hanger when I was frustrated... but it wasn't really frustrated for a good reason so that justification doesn't last long :P
Seriously though, I cannot tell you what a relief this is to a person so emotional as I. Granted I have also been told by professionals (by professionals I mean the medical kind) there is nothing wrong with anger, in and of itself, because it is a gauge, a red flag saying "Hey! They crossed the line! That was a boundary breach!" But there is a good and bad way to deal with it. As Christians, we are encouraged to do it the good way because that reflects the nature of God, which might be the only way anyone on earth sees Him.
Mahatma Gandhi said, "It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence." I got that from the A-Team but did verify it :P See this information all just comes together like a random puzzle.....Ok you've seen the pieces, here's point: We have emotions. To make a play on Gandhi's quote: It is better to allow ourselves the real emotions God gave us, to feel them and handle them in a right manner than to put on a cloak of Rejoicing and Gladness to cover impotence (i.e. the quality of lacking strength or power; being weak and feeble).
This blog is not an attempt to make a cloak to hide under OR to cast on others. This is not a justification for legalistic behavior or a support for a belief that being unhappy is a sin. It is a journey into the heart of God and all He wants and has for us. Its a piece of the big picture. A significant one, but only a part of the whole.
I am saying this for myself, as much as to anyone else. It is I who was shown this and so I am listening. And sharing. Because that's part of the blog, to share how I went about this research. Anyway, I just wanted to clarify that. It is so easy to get caught up in "shoulds." It is a comfort to know that we have a freedom in Christ.
"Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes." Gandhi (again)
Amen.
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