A dejected student comes to your office to talk about his most recent slip up. He feels awful that he and his girlfriend messed up once again. And he’s even more discouraged this time because he had really been praying about this camping trip. He knew it’d offer temptation, so he prayed, fasted, immersed himself in Scripture. But when he and his girlfriend went to sleep at night in the same tent…things happened.
“Why did God allow me to fall?”
You’re a bit shocked that he is shocked. “Of course you messed up,” you tell him. Then you go into a lengthy (and loving) discussion about not putting yourself in the path of temptation but running. You can be as prayed up as possible but if you put yourself into such situations you’re going to fall every time. The Christian life requires wisdom.
And yet the very same pastor giving this advice to the young man runs on about 5 hours of sleep, fuels himself with energy drinks and caffeine pills. He’s been praying about depression and anxiety and trying to get a handle on his fits of rage. But he keeps failing. His emotions feel so out of control. He doesn’t know why God isn’t giving him victory over these things.
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I’ve been reading a very helpful book called Untangling Emotions. I’m only about a third of the way through the book but it has spurred so much thought. I’ve always known that our bodies are complex and incredibly intertwined. I’ve known for quite some time that there is a relationship between my level of sleep and my battle with things like depression. But the authors put things in such a way that I saw my battle in the same light as that teenager trying to avoid sexual temptation whilst sleeping in a tent with his girlfriend.
Being tired or thirsty doesn’t make it okay to be snippy or rude, of course, but it’s helpful to recognize that too little sleep or water (or too many glasses of stronger drink) or a whole host of other physiological states and experiences will exert a steady pull on our emotions and thus become a source of trial and temptation in our lives. (Untangling Emotions, 63)
What if we viewed emotional purity in the same light that we viewed sexual purity? Garbage in, garbage out. Doesn’t that apply to our emotions as well? And isn’t something like anger and anxiety just as much of an issue as sexual indiscretion? (That’s not to minimize either but to maximize the importance of holistic holiness).
I understand, as well, that there are complexities here. Depression often creates a cycle where we physiological wreak havoc on ourselves. It’s a sick cycle. We know that we do better on 8 hours of sleep but our anxiety keeps us up until early morning. This is why our battle with things like anxiety cannot simply be tackled on a biological front. But it’s also why we probably can’t just pray it away.
Sexual purity requires wisdom coupled with a radical dedication to purity in this area. Prayer. Accountability. Radical Measures. Wisdom. All of those are needed. I don’t know why we would think emotional purity requires anything less.
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