Aerosmith sang of "Sweet emotion."

The Bee Gees sang, "It's just emotion that's taking me over."

Debbie Boone sang, "It can't be wrong, when it feels so right."

Well, which is it?

Are emotions "sweet" -- one of the more enjoyable aspects of human life?

Or are emotions overwhelming -- "taking us over" -- causing us to lose control of our rational faculties? Are emotions alone able to guide our decisions since "it feels so right?" And if not, do emotions play any prominent role in our decision making?

Unfortunately, the evangelical mind has a love/hate relationship with emotions. We just can't seem to find a way to harmonize our emotional life with our rational life. This is why we speak so much of aligning our "heart" with our "head." But this scandalous division of our humanity is certainly not the way God intended things to be!

"It is a scandal of our times that the mind and the emotions are in conflict, each separated from the other, and incapable of living meaningfully together, needing each other or recognizing their mutual dependence. An emotional life must be meaningful, and a rational existence must be clothed with appropriate emotions." (James Houston, The Heart's Desire, p. 112)

God certainly did not intend us to function by "logic" and "reason" alone! The inability to show feeling is not a strength but a weakness. It is the mark of a psychopath and not the mark of a disciple of Jesus Christ. (Indeed, one of the common characteristics of psychopaths is that they have no capacity to sympathize with their victims -- in other words, they feel nothing for them! This is the reason they treat others so cruelly.) God does not intend for us to be unfeeling stoics who are unaffected and unmoved by the triumphs and tragedies of life.

I believe it is true that "you cannot know what you cannot feel." For how can we say that we love God and desire to know God without introducing a strong emotional element into our relationship with God? Furthermore, how can we say that we truly love others if we "feel" nothing for them?

At the same time, we certainly are not meant to function by "emotion" or "desire" alone!

Ultimately, we are suspicious of feelings because we value the ability to exercise control and bring order to situations -- and emotions just seem to muddy things up too much! Because of this, we have de-humanized the faith, our worship, & ultimately, the object of our faith -- Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ truly experienced every human emotion to its fullest extent. In his days on this earth, he sang the songs of Zion -- the Psalms -- songs that greatly accentuate the many different emotional expressions of the people of God. In His glorified humanity in the heavens, Jesus Christ continues to share with us in our struggles, trials, weaknesses, as well as our joys, delights, and triumphs.

It's just emotion? Hardly! Every emotion and every experience can be transformed into worship. The Psalms are proof of this! This week, we will consider the great breadth of emotional expression displayed in the Psalms. You may be surprised by just how much of a role "emotion" plays in the worship of the people of God -- and not just positive emotions, but also negative ones as well.

What do you do with your emotions? Reject them? Ignore them? Suppress them? This week, we will consider the best alternative -- express them to God in all honesty! In so doing, even our most seemingly "uncontrollable" and overwhelming emotions are brought into service to the living God through worship!

---

© Richard J. Vincent, July 21, 2002