Emotional
Rollercoaster
(7-4-04)
Ezra 3:10-13
PS 139:13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. 14 I
praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full
well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the
depths of the earth, 16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be. 17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
God in all his wisdom made us to be emotional creatures and this is marvelous. What is emotion? What is the sum of
it? Is it right and good for Christians to be emotional? Why ask such questions? It is in the history of the restoration peoples
(Church of Christ, Christian Church, and Disciples
of Christ) to preach and teach against emotion. What is right? What is biblical? What is godly?
It is true that we are made in the image of God and when he finished his work of creation he looked it over and said:
‘it is good!’ Becoming Christians is more than being saved, it is being refashioned after the likeness of God’s
Son Jesus who is “the expressed image and likeness of God.” (Heb.1:3; Rom.8:29; 1Cor.15:49; 2Cor.3:18)
We are as David put it, ‘fearfully and wonderfully made.’ And in that making, emotions play a part. Like
so many other things this too must be governed. It is right and good to avoid extremes. It would just as bad to be too emotional
as it would to be to stoic. Neither extreme is healthy.
In our reading from Ezra we see an outpouring of emotions, both of sorrow and joy, or some mixture of both. They had
reason for both. Was God honored by their emotional outcry? Yes, I believe He was. Even more, I think God would have been
robbed of His due glory and praise without such an open display of emotion. (what
is you response to someone receiving a gift from you with stoic indifference?)
Emotion is described as an intense feeling – love, joy, hate, anger, fear, despair, etc. Since they are feelings,
then they are subject to change based upon what is going on around us or in us. Was Jesus emotional? Yes! He loved, wept,
was angered, was disappointed or saddened. I also believe Jesus was a man of Joy and Laughter. These are good things. Like
all good things, emotions need to be governed.
Was Paul a man of deep emotion? “ For I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you
know the depth of my love for you.” (2Cor.2:4) 1Thes.2:17-20 It is easy see the depth of Paul’s care for
these people by seeing his emotional attachments. (Acts 20:25-38) It is good to be alive with feeling. When you praise God
today, take time to bring to your memory and your heart the strong reason for giving Him praise. (Job 36:22ff)
God is worthy of your
excitement and joy and praise.
