Boys dont cry.
Women are emotional.
Dont be a sissy!
Church is for sissies.
You have probably heard all these statements, giving the impression that it is weak to be emotional. We are told we must be tough and strong to get ahead. If you are a man, you have to pretend not to have emotions. If you are a woman in a corporate world, you will get ahead if you act tough and emotionless. There is no place for emotional women in the boardroom. Is this narrative true, though?
Should we be emotional, or not? Are we more normal when we are less emotional? How did God create us? Did he make us emotional beings or not? Some argue that men are less emotional, therefore God created humans less emotional. This has led to a lot of stereotyping of men and women. Society tells us men are less emotional, whilst women are highly emotional.
Humans were created in the image of God. What kind of image is that? Paul tells us that Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation (Colossians 1:15). To understand what kind of image we are, we must look at Jesus, the true image of God.
Our true identity
Satan, the deceiver has always wanted to deceive us about our true identity from the beginning. I believe one of the things he deceived humanity about is in the area of emotions. He has made us believe that it is weak and foolish to feel emotion.
Paul tells us that Satan has blinded the minds of unbelievers. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God (2 Corinthians 4:4).
Here is the truth of the matter: God is emotional! You are emotional! Yes, even if you are a man. In fact, a recent study conducted by a psychological research institute, Mindlab, found that men are more emotional than women. They measured the emotional reactions of men and women at a physiological level. Men showed more emotion when measured, but said they felt less emotional than women. Women on the other hand showed less emotion than men when measured, but they said they felt more emotional than men.
Humans are emotional beings. To be emotional is to be human. In fact, to be emotionless is to be un-human, or not human. If you are not emotional, you are not being a true human. When a child is raped, it is inhuman not to feel anything. Unfortunately, we are conditioned to suppress our emotions, as if they are bad.
Many Christians struggle with the idea of a Jesus who gets angry. He is too emotional for them. They dont know how to think of a Jesus who made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. (John 2:15). They dont know what to make of a Jesus who weeps for a dead friend. But that is what Jesus did. Jesus wept John tells us (John 11:35). In fact, he wept more often than we realise. Luke tells us that one day as he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it (Luke 19:41). The Greek word for weeping used here actually means to sob or wail aloud.
I am glad that Jesus got angry and wept as often as he did. I would rather serve an emotional God than an unemotional one. The God revealed in the Bible is a God who showed anger, jealousy, grief, joy, love and compassion. If God was not emotional, he would not care whether you go to hell or not. It is because he has such deep emotion for us that he sent his beloved Son to die for humans. Thank God he is emotional!
Humans are emotional because they are the image of an emotional God. Men go to war and fight because they are emotional. They get heart attacks because they are emotional.
Emotion for the right things
Allow yourself to be emotional. It is human, even godly to be so. Dont allow the devil to make you inhuman. Pray that our Father helps you to feel emotional for the right things. Dont be angry about load shedding and high food prices. Be angry about murder, rape, and child abuse.
TV and computer games can kill our emotions. We can easily get to a stage of feeling nothing for the Christians being butchered for their faith, for the sexual infidelity we see in the soapies, for children becoming orphaned from HIV and Ebola.
One of the greatest problems of sin is the corruption of our emotions. We no longer know how to feel. We have emotions for the wrong things, and have no emotions for the right things. Pray that the Father, through the Spirit, may heal your emotions to be like those of Jesus, so that you may weep for things Jesus wept for, that you may be angry for the things Jesus got angry for, that you may be passionate for the things Jesus was passionate for.
Amen!
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