A Spaghetti Strainer for Emotion

I don't know if you care for country music at all, but there's a Miranda Lambert song called "Mama's Broken Heart" and the chorus goes something like: 

"Go and fix your makeup girl, it's just a breakup

Run and hide your crazy and start actin' like a lady
'Cause I raised you better, gotta keep it together
Even when you fall apart...

This ain't my mama's broken heart"

Maybe you've heard people say, "Just follow your heart" or "you do you". Maybe you've heard song lyrics or speeches from a big stage where emotions and how to handle them were the focus. To some, 'emotions' may sound like a 4-letter word. You've come to understand that emotions and feelings are meant to be stuffed down, not shown, and therefore, not worked through. Yet, to others, you have so many emotions you don't know how to handle them all. 

Whatever end of the spectrum you fall on, can I tell you today that emotions are a healthy, good, and worthy thing? They are a part of who we are and how we have been designed. God himself if the author of emotion, so if He says they're okay, then why are we so hesitant to own them, work through them, and love ourselves because of them? God is the author of emotion because in Psalm 139, Scripture says that "he knit us together in our mother's womb and created us fearfully and wonderfully". He didn't just slap us together, he didn't just create our bodies.. but every single thing that makes us...us.

What do we do with those emotions that are difficult, though? The emotions that are unbecoming, painful, challenging, or downright prove that we, in fact, have a sin nature? Wouldn't it be revolutionary if there was a clean cut answer or a magic skin care solution that we could apply and be cleansed of every emotion that affects us negatively? Unfortunately, nothing like that exists... however, there are ways that we can begin to deal with hard emotions faster and more biblically. So the next time pride, envy, disappointment, loneliness, anger, or an emotion of the like pops up... we can rest assured that they won't last forever. 

Scripture tells us in Jeremiah 17:9 that the "heart is deceitful above all else" and in 2 Corinthians 10:5 that we need to "take every thought captive". See, our emotions can often live in our thoughts. They are not just what we feel but also what we think and eventually can manifest into who we are and what we do. But if we take every thought (and feeling) captive, we are automatically living by the standard of Scripture. And if Scripture never returns void and is living and active, then we can know that we are actively participating in finding the right space for our difficult emotions. 

Taking every thought captive is neither stuffing everything down nor limiting who we are. Rather it is giving it over to the Author of emotion and running it through His perfect spaghetti strainer first. His strainer helps you to find the right and appropriate time and place to handle that envy or bitterness that you have towards that woman in your small group or the loneliness you feel when you go home alone and eat cheese puffs everyday, sighing as you scroll through social media. 

Your emotions are part of who you are and how you have been created. There is no getting out of facing difficult emotions in our lives, we know that even Christ faced difficult emotions (i.e. anguish when Lazarus died, sorrow in the garden of gethsemane, righteous anger in the temple). How we handle emotions can be the biggest difference maker in how we step into tomorrow and the next day and who learns how to deal healthily with their emotions, from the example we set.

So how is this possible? A few suggestions:

- Pray and ask God for even just strength in the moment ("God, help" .. it can be that simple).

- Find a trustworthy friend who can help shoulder the burden and will pray with / for you.

- Meditate on Scripture, journal, blast worship music, go for a run, be slow to speak.

p.s. There is ABSOLUTELY space to sit on the couch and cry or aggress on a punching bag. Some days all we might be able to muster is "Jesus, help me". I'm not saying taking our thoughts / emotions captive is easy, it's not but it is Holy and helpful.