Though pretty much every published book or article out there right now has been written from an evolutionary perspective, the scientists and authors have discovered our bodies are wired for emotions. If we look at what they are discovering through their research through a biblical lens – from a creationist perspective – we see that God created us with this intricate system that connects the information take in through our various senses with chemicals (a.k.a. hormones) to our bodies. The physiological reaction to these hormones prepares our bodies to move. {Hence the name: emotion, which comes to us from Latin “to move.”}
At the end of the biblical creation account, “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31).
It’s not a far leap in logic to realize if he created man in his own image, if he created man to experience emotions – which we are now discovering through modern technology – and if he saw everything he made and considered it very good, then emotions, as part of his creation and as part of his creation of man in his own image, are very good. Do you get that?
Emotions are very good.
Emotions are very good.
Somehow we’ve lost the idea of emotions being very good, and I think Satan is pretty happy (yes, that’s an emotion, too) about it.
Bottom line? We were created to experience emotions.
When we deny it, we lose.
Every time we take something God made and call it into question we lose.
Adam and Eve lost in the garden when they called into question the covenant God made regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Husbands lose when they call into question the authority God gave them to lead sacrificially, preferring and protecting their wife and children above themselves.
Wives lose when we call into question the order (not value) God gave in setting the husband as the head of the family.
Children lose when we take the honor God made for our parents and give it to ourselves (rebelling against authority) or others (caring for or accepting direction from others at the expense of caring for and honoring our parents).
Families lose when we call into question the emotions we were given to move us to righteousness by abusing one another with uncontrolled emotions, giving unbridled vent to rage, angst, fear, grief, or euphoria, pleasure, and passion.
Households lose when we call into question the emotions we were given to move us to community by forbidding emotions, which leads to an environment of emotional abandonment, withdrawal, shame, cheerlessness, lust, and emptiness.
As individuals we lose a little bit of what it means to be human when we strip the healthy experience of emotions from our lives.
Society loses a great deal of what it means to be a community and government loses a great deal of what it means to protect and defend life, when individuals become less human. Just look at the political sphere to find evidence of this!
The loss of empathy is a nail in the coffin of justice and mercy.
We have abandoned the Creator’s design with respect to emotions. As a result, the relationships for which we were created suffer; the worship we were created to give is hollow and empty. Without a healthy emotional life, we are less than what we were created to be – and now we have science to back up that fact.
The solution is not to suppress emotion and withdraw from others. The solution is to accept our emotions and to train them to move us into healthy relationships.
We don’t have to lose. Following God’s design and instruction always sets us up to win.
So where do you need to repent? Do you give free reign to your emotions, allowing unbridled fear, anger, or passion to trample the people around you? Do you suppress emotions through withdrawal, abandonment, and shame based upon how they (or you!) feel?
Take time today to think through one are where you are abusing emotions and stripping the image of God from yourself or others. Pray for wisdom about how to live out the image of God in a way that magnifies God’s glory rather than man’s sin. Then comment below or send me an email so I can pray for you as you grow in Christlikeness. I will pray for every single comment/email I receive.