Embracing Your Emotional Compelxity: A Devotional Message

A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance. Ecclesiastes 3:4 NIV

Jesus wept. John 11:35 NIV

Emotions can be beautiful things, but they can also be painful buggers that make our lives more complicated. We were created with the wonderful capacity to experience even the smallest moments of life through sensational mixtures of feelings that cut, yet gift us, deeply, and while such sensations are definitely a gift, at times they can also seem like a curse.

Because we often get confused by emotions, we sometimes experiment with how we experience them.

Some people might try to mitigate emotional depth to simplify life - this could be with prescription medications, distraction, or simple repression - but they eventually find that too little emotion can lead to a robotic existence that doesn’t feel much like living at all.

Other people might vow to experience the romance of feeling every little thing, but they might discover that too much emotion—feeling everything too deeply—can be extreme and leave a person exhausted.

What has your attitude toward emotions been lately? How is your emotional experience in the workplace, at school, or even out amongst family and friends?

In some societal institutions and expectations, it can seem as if most emotional responses were somehow removed by an efficient human resource program. People can become suspicious of humor and passionate displays from others, and some people might even start to think that the best neighbors, workers, and classmates are those who shut out emotional experience altogether.

However, we all know that there is no way to shut emotions off completely, no matter the environment. We all feel hope and vulnerability when we want people to like us, and we all get hurt when people don’t respond warmly to us. We can all get angry if malicious things are said about us, and we can all feel the chill of regret when we hurt someone else with our words.

We are all best served by realizing that emotions are an undeniable part of human existence.

The best workers and partners and parents and creators will be the ones who thoughtfully embrace a certain depth of emotion, and the best friends and neighbors will be those who recognize that those around them are complex and might be dealing with their own emotional struggles each day.

God gave us life in order that we might experience it deeply: He wants us to feel our existence.

We live amid stunning nature in order to appreciate it through things such as sunsets that make us feel indescribable beauty, and we live among other humans in order to feel their presence through sensations such as love and empathy. We are built to express and create.

Our emotions bring us true connections to everything around us every day, and a healthy sense of "feeling connected to life" is a great goal as far as our wellness is concerned.

Today, pray for a grand experience of emotions in every aspect of your life. Pray for divine infusions of passion and empathy, and pray for the freedom to embrace and express your emotions in a way that makes your world a better, more spiritual place for everyone. Be at peace with who you are, emotions included.

Prayer: Dear God, please allow me to experience love and joy without the fear of being hurt, and please allow me to embrace the complexity of who I am in every environment. Please bring me profound emotions throughout the day in order that I might live a more spiritual life at all times.