I enjoyed a few weeks of vacation in July so I drew from the archives for this month’s newsletter. I hope you enjoy this essay about bringing your emotions before God.
“God does not permit you to feel that way.”
This response from a pastor — given after I shared that I was feeling discouraged — left me, well, even more discouraged and frustrated. His message was clear: “Good Christians don’t have those kinds of emotions. Stop feeling what you feel. Fix yourself.”
Besides resembling the Newhart Method of Counseling™, the pastor’s well-meaning but tone-deaf response left me without a path forward. If I could’ve simply willed away the discouragement, I wouldn’t have shared my struggle in the first place. I needed better counsel, something more than “Stop it!”
Maybe you can relate. Each day you’re treading water in a sea of emotions—some pleasant, others not so much—and you’re not quite sure how to keep your head above water. Take heart, you’re not alone.
Most of us are unskilled at dealing with all the feels. Many of us try to suppress our feelings. We try to hide them from ourselves by ignoring or dismissing them. We try to hide them from other people and God himself because we’re afraid of what they’ll think about us. The trouble is, suppressing emotion is like trying to hold a beach ball under the water: it only works for so long. Eventually, one way or another, the emotion shoots back up to the surface.
So, what do you do with the mad that you feel? The fear? The sadness? The loneliness and frustration and envy and shame?
The Psalms show us.
Thank You For Unnecessary Goodness
My pastoral prayer from June 30, 2024.
Our God and Father, we bow in your presence this morning. You are the almighty Creator of heaven and earth. We join our voices with the choir of creation to rejoice in your glory and goodness.
Father, we confess that we’ve dishonored your name in the eyes of our neighbors. We’ve not embodied the values of your kingdom. Instead of humbly serving our neighbors, we’ve lived arrogantly, serving ourselves. Instead of being people of peace, we’ve been all too eager to fight — with our words if not our fists. Instead of generosity, we’ve been marked by greed and materialism.
Father, we’ve led our neighbors to believe you are altogether like us.
Forgive us for the ways we’ve tarnished your reputation. Forgive us for the ways we’ve obscured your goodness and glory. Our sins are many. But we throw ourselves on your abundant mercy and grace.
Father, thank you for filling this world with your beauty and goodness: the taste of a strawberry; light playing on ocean waves at sunset; the sound of human voices singing your praise; the aroma of homebaked cookies; the warmth of the morning sun on our skin. We thank you for unnecessary goodness!
You’ve richly blessed us with so many things to enjoy, so many things to wonder at, so many things to delight in. Awaken us more and more to your beauty. Help us to taste and see that you are good!
Through My Lens
Art I’m Enjoying
Poetry I’m Enjoying
The Answering Machine
By Linda Pastan
I call and hear your voice
on the answering machine
weeks after your death,
a fledgling ghost still longing
for human messages.
Shall I leave one, telling
how the fabric of our lives
has been ripped before
but that this sudden tear will not
be mended soon or easily?
In your emptying house, others
roll up rugs, pack books,
drink coffee at your antique table,
and listen to messages left
on a machine haunted
by the timbre of your voice,
more palpable than photographs
or fingerprints. On this first day
of this first fall without you,
ashamed and resisting
but compelled, I dial again
the number I know by heart,
thankful in a diminished world
for the accidental mercy of machines,
then listen and hang up.
Quote of the Moment
If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.
— from The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Explore other quotes I’ve collected
