I’m not all the way healed of depression, anxiety, poor thinking, etc. but I have experienced substantial healing. The Lord used several people and several resources to provide this healing. I thought it might be beneficial to walk through some of the resources which helped. Today we will cover chapter 1 of Untangling Emotions.
Summary:
I felt sad.
I didn’t want to feel sad.
And so I would put myself on a quest to feel better. And it was killing me, because I was pursuing the wrong goal. Negative emotions aren’t always bad. When we experience them our goal isn’t to terminate them but to listen to them.
I felt like something was wrong with me because I wasn’t always cheerful. That’s why a paragraph like this one was so helpful:
Unlike our assumption that the most faithful people will be the most carefree and emotionally upbeat, Scripture is full of aching, grieving saints who tear their clothes and sit in the ashes when their world get upended. The basic logic in the Bible is this: if you care about others and the kingdom and mission of God in this world, you will be and you should be full of sorrow when you or those you love are injured, suffer loss, or die. (24)
Not only does the Bible command things like joy but it also lifts up things like lament as an appropriate response. “Our negative emotions, like God’s, play a necessary role in our lives. They tell us that something is wrong.” (27) We have to enter into not only the joys but also the pains of God’s love. (28)
Comment:
This was helpful because it encouraged me to look into my negative emotions. Even if they weren’t accurate or rational it opened my eyes to the possibility that some of the things I was feeling should be embraced rather than denied. What this did was it moved my target away from trying to feel only one way, and it opened up a new target—“What is the most God-honoring emotion in this moment?”
Quotable:
“Only those who love the Lord enough to open their hearts to the pain in his world will be able to enter into his joy as well.” (28)
