No matter how cerebral and egg-headed humans can be, no matter how interested in concepts and theories, no matter how seemingly robotic—at root, emotions are us. Think of any friend. Who are they? How would you recognize them even if they were physically disguised?
“Tell me about yourself?”
“Well, I’m thirty-something. I work for a small business.”
Strong emotions always insist on particular interpretations of life, and they are in no mood to listen to alternatives.
“It is vain to contend with anything that hath the power of our affections at its disposal; it will prevail at the last.” So says Jonathan Edwards in Treatise on Religious Affections, and he is right. When you feel something strongly, you are very confident in whatever that emotion says about you, other people and God.
I was watching a TV biography about Johnny Cash the other night. Johnny wrote a song about why he wore black. In one stanza he writes,
I’d love to wear a rainbow everyday, and tell the world that everything’s okay But I’ll try to carry off a little darkness on my back Till things are brighter, I’m the man in black.
Now I don’t want to miss all of the redemptive, hopeful lyrics in Johnny Cash’s music, but I must say, it did resonate with what I am experiencing and what many others are experiencing these days.
I think emotions have gotten a bum-rap in biblical counseling. Of course, we understand the fluid nature of emotions. They ebb and flow and often tempt us to rash or unwise actions. But I think that often we go beyond exercising wisdom and caution as we address emotions and simply relegate them to nuisance status. As biblical counselors we often treat emotions as if, at best, they serve as a sort of flashing light on the dashboard of our lives warning us that something has gone wrong under the hood.
I was watching a TV biography about Johnny Cash the other night. Johnny wrote a song about why he wore black. In one stanza he writes,