"Feelings...whoa whoa whoa...feelings..."
Young ones, Google it for that reference. Or take an elevator, anywhere. It will pop up eventually.
Feelings. Our very soul consists of them, invisible, powerful, ephemeral. The soul lies housed in the body, which creates endorphins, or enhances toxins, depending on how the soul disseminates the environment shaping the emotions.
Your heart races at the sight of your lover, or it pounds at the sight of a nemesis.
You can spring up in joy after winning the championship game!! or sink down to the depths at the death of a loved or respected one.
Our body and soul literally function at the whim of our emotions.
Yet, from the time we can sit up, we begin receiving stern admonition to suppress, appropriately express, not regress to, and only address in private the very unseen mechanism that fuels our existence.
Feelings house our memories, guide our decisions, shape our judgments.
As a society, we have no idea how to manage this mechanism emanating from others, save for social mores and norms. It varies with the generations. Kingdoms won and lost over a disagreement. Dynasties ruled by indifferent rulers, following a strict code. Puritanical views on emotion and sin shaped this country. " BE strong. " " Don't let the devil get you down." 'Idle hands make devil's work" In other words exhaust yourself to keep from thinking about how you feel.
A generation ago, we still taught our children to contain themselves, at least in public. Now public has lost all boundaries, and everyone, everywhere, has the right to free speech on social media. True. Awkward, but true. We communicate a thousand more times a day than folks did one forty years ago, and so our feelings receive a thousand times more speculation and assessment, causing us to doubt who we are and what we believe.
Therein lies the dilemma.
Fervent emotions and passions have zero tolerance in "the real world" of business and commerce.( Unless, of course, you loathe your competition and pour your energy into either dismantling or surpassing his kingdom. At that point you have wielded passion into a profit margin and achieved the American dream by nefarious means, as opposed to the long-suffering way of planting and waiting for harvest. Either way takes passion.)
Emotions, generally perceived as weakness, don't get tolerated so much in the great big bouncy world of organized religion either -- unless it's the divine ecstasy of revelation, singing praise at the top of your lungs, or joyful tears in the richness of blessing.
Crying in worship, sharing doubts, showing anger tends to be sshhhed! in the hallowed halls of the great sanctuaries. "Not here! This IS THE HOUSE OF THE LORD. No one wants to see you crying. God Loves you, honey! Cheer up! . < hmmm...I thought He loved me as I am??>
Only Happiness and Holiness Allowed
( experience not needed, will train )
Not to say we should share our life story at length, in church or elsewhere, but we do not exist in a vacuum.
Our essence, who we are, lies in those very emotions. We sentient beings have that inherited right, as it gave us courage in the Neanderthal days to survive.
We remain hard-wired to feel, not behave serenely in the face of distress. Even Queen Elizabeth, a lifelong model of stoic decorum, did not sip tea and sit princess-like, gazing demurely out the palace window as the bombs fell on London -- she raced through the streets of her bombed out nation retrieving soldiers as an ambulance driver.
We certainly have social and civil requirements in interacting with others, addressing issues, sidestepping toxic waste -- and a certain self-responsibility in avoiding self-toxicity.
Nothing hurts a loved one more than to hear their beloved loathing themselves. However, experiencing pain is not " from the Devil". Dispensing it, maybe. ( Don't want to give negative forces any credit, so let's get back to the so-called "sin" of emotion).
The Bible says we are created in God's image. Right there in the first few pages of Genesis, chapter 1, verse 27. The rest of the Bible references a God who floods the earth, sends meteors to destroy the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, lets His people wander in the desert for 40 years, slays a vast civilization with plagues, and then changes His mind to offer redemption. Sounds like every dynasty, kingdom, or corporation, ever...minus the redemption clause.
" We are made in the image of God." Seems we have been indoctrinated, over the centuries by the early Church ( formed in secrecy under oppressive governance), to believe/know that God is a remote judge who will hypocritically sent eye us to the depths of hell us for a) not attaining sainthood and b) by possessing the same emotions which we inherited from Him.
Indoctrinated to believe that emotion does not dovetail with devotion. Indoctrinated to believe that the same Creator who spent eons painting the universe in exquisite detail would condemn us for being the very creation formed in His hands. Indoctrinated to believe that an ancient "headstrong woman" condemned all women to pain and to bear the curse of humanity. Indoctrinated to believe that other people, who existed on earth at that same time, were somehow out of the realm of His creation -- not to mention the dinosaurs -- and that all of the angst of humanity hinged on one "sin" of eating a forbidden fruit. God is love. Absolute love. Love forgives, sees past mistakes, stills the waters.
Surely there has to be more to the story. Surely the tribal nomads who passed along the Judeo-Christian chronicles around the fires of their kinsman could have left out a f e w things over the years. Surely the coming of Messiah did not mean the end of passion. Surely it meant the onset of it. .
We possess intuition and perception for a reason -- not extraneously or something to be feared, like some emotional appendix buried deep within our gut, out of sight out of mind. Certainly not suppressed, simply because we have chosen to believe in God. The true meaning of salvation does not equal excision of emotion.
It means celebration of it -- eternally! Beware of suppressing the authentic you. Everyone knows what happens if you ignore an inflamed appendix...
...so allow feelings into your heart, but don't let them build up. Bottlled emotions muddle the mind. Panicked minds shut down the frontal lobe, which in turn lead to attack mode at perceived enemies. Remember, our cache of emotions did not come equipped with an arsenal, so making prison shanks out of the ones you possess also has zero tolerance. Not cool. If you are in prison of any sort, it is by your own hand. Don't stab the ones who come to visit.
Abundantly allow feelings into your mind, combining them with the facts at hand to make informed decisions.Great theologians, especially the ones with the big auditoriums on television, will tell you that your feelings gain strength from the devil "whispering in your ear", and so you should " ignore your feelings... clear your mind... so you can hear God and God alone." Not bad advice. However...
...if the devil is close enough to you to whisper, you have more problems than your emotions.
God gave you those feelings. You inherited them from Him. Don't deny your inheritance by ascribing to "church face theology" in which no negativity is allowed. God had, and has plenty of negative emotions. Anger, sorrow, jealousy, remorse. He also abounds in joy, which counteracts all of those. You are a unique creation, and your emotions make up your spirit.
That spirit DOES lead the flow of your thoughts, yes, so examine your negative feelings as though you would a splinter -- or more serious injury. Evaluate what need to be done to heal the wound, and give it the air and time it needs.
Let not others tape down unnecessary bandages which keep it festering, simply so your pain is out of their sight. Feeling sad, angry, jealous and vengeful is in your DNA. So also joy, excitement, charitable and gracious. Day-to-day emotions ebb and flow like the tide. All were given for a purpose, to help us learn of the wonderful creation that is us.
Be real. Do no harm, but be real. It's your divine inheritance, and also the crux of one of the greatest emotion of them all. Love.
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What's shakin' y'all! Thanks for musing on my musings.. anything you leave here goes to my e-mail ) Be blessed!