Bridging the Gap

How may we blend knowledge of the truth with a proportionate feeling so that we will lead our emotions rather than being guided by them?

Currently, our society still values what they see in business and education.  They would respond to the above that these two would provide the greater scope in becoming the essential bridge.

From a spiritual perspective, Martin Collins suggests that none of us can achieve spiritual growth without controlling the emotions. Though God has created humans with a mind to work in tandem with the emotional impulses (prompts to action), too many of us have, according to Daniel Goleman in his book "Emotional Intelligence," allowed the amygdala (emotions) to run roughshod over the cerebral cortex (mind), allowing anger (and other negative emotions) to get out of control. God displays anger (as well as other emotions), but always in controlled measured response, unlike the out-of-control childish rage of humans. Using God's Spirit (2 Timothy 1:7) the spirit of a sound mind, we can grow into emotional (not emotionless) spiritual maturity, exercising our senses through God's Law, searching the deep things of God (1 Corinthians 2:10), controlling feelings and passions with the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:16)

Read more: http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Audio.Details/ID/646/How-Emotions-Affect-Spiritual-Maturity.htm#ixzz1CcWXWYZW

Why is it that so many of us lead mediocre lives, chasing peace of mind, health, money, fame, and spiritual evolution – which seems to be just beyond our reach? We can see it, long to reach it, but somehow we don’t always attain our goals. Why does a long, uncertain ... pause come between what we want and what we have?

Victor Frankl, author of Man’s Search for Meaning, and survivor of the Holocaust said, “The one thing you can’t take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me. The last of one’s freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given circumstance. ” Even before we understand the various roadblocks we face between wanting and having and ways to bulldoze through them, we need to realize that the first step is to choose a positive state of mind, irrespective of the current situation in life. Only then will we even begin to bridge the gap between the two posts.  I have to cross the bridge between wanting and having. Either I can do so hopefully and happily, or I can do so depressed and dejected. So why not choose the gladder option?

There is a saying that we are told not to cross a bridge until we come to it, but this world is owned by individuals who have crossed bridges far ahead of the crowd. 


So let's cross this chasm between our own frailties and the peace of God that passes all understanding with the value that God has designed us with the desire to know and the thrill of feeling.

What wrong ideas about God have we brought into our relationship with Him?

  An example might be needed here - how about Jonah - he believed that God ought to totally destroy the pagans who lived so violently.  Even after he preached an amazing call and there was revival, he went up a mountain and waited to see the people destroyed.  He just did not get God - remember, he ran away from God before this all happened.

Os Guinnes wrote a book called, God in the Dark: The Assurance of Faith Beyond a Shadow of Doubt. There is a paragraph on page 134 where he states something interesting about this very topic:

“Mistaken teaching spawns a view of faith that is unbiblical, weak, and ineffective in combating doubts that come from a emotional source. The battle is lost before it begins. The understanding was not in control in time of faith, so it is not in control in time of doubt. The emotions were everything when faith was there, and now that doubt is there they are still everything. All that is different is that they have changed sides. But if emotions are really all that matters, then neither faith nor doubt have anything to do with truth; they are simply the names that we give to their changing moods.”

This is good because once we understand that feelings are vital but not foundational then we delight in God’s truth and can endure the temporariness of felt distance.

It is like feeling is more as a person walking alongside you, always held in the clasp of your knowledge

What absences or lack of disciplines have we brought into our relationship with God?

This is at the heart of what leaves us restless and uncertain

The distance we feel is not so much that God is so far away as much as it is that we are so far from where we could be

Indiscipline breeds surrender to the lesser and defeat in the face of opportunity

Whether it is in our studies or in our habits, we seem to always find the line of least resistance and then blame God when we fail in our commitment to come to Him on His terms.

Self-government or self-control is the foundation of a strong godly life resulting in growth, and producing fruit. If a person cannot govern himself, if they cannot master their passions, they will certainly not have a good relationship with their fellowman or God. Their life will likely be marked by major excesses.  The Bible uses other expressions like; to behave in an orderly manner, to be sober, serious, sane, sound-minded, discreet, self-disciplined, prudent, and moderate.

A person who has self-control is even-handed, and their passions are under control. They make proper use of their drives and desires, and their manner of life is not one of extremes. A person reflecting this quality will be making steady progress in growing into the balanced character of Jesus Christ.

 

What prejudices and insecurities we have brought into our relationship with Christ?

     For example, when the disciples started arguing who was going to be the greatest in the kingdom. . . they were bringing with them their definitions of success.

Jim Elliott wrote these words in his journal: "He is no fool who would choose to give the things he cannot keep to buy what he can never lose." In 1952, he and Nate Saint and some other young men, who were trying to reach the Auca Indians in Ecuador, were martyred. What he wrote as a very young man, many people live their entire lives without ever understanding.

It's important to remember that the apostle Paul was excited about the church in Corinth. He loved these people. He was their spiritual father, having planted the church. It was a dynamic, gifted spiritual community. But their effectiveness in impacting the Corinthian culture and in ministering to one another was being undermined by jealousy, factions, intellectual arrogance, and selfish ambition.

John Stott in his book -  The Preacher's Portrait:

"To God's revealed message men must humbly submit.... I believe that this 'let him become a fool' is one of the hardest words of Scripture to the proud hearts and minds of men. Like the brilliant intellectuals of ancient Greece our contemporaries have unbounded confidence in...human reason. They want to think their way to God by themselves, and to gain credit for discovering God by their own effort. But God resists such swellings of pride on the part of the finite creature. Of course men have been given minds to use, and they are never to stifle or smother them, but they must humble them reverently before the revelation of God, becoming in Paul's word 'fools' and in Christ's word 'babes'. It is only babes to whom God reveals himself, and only fools whom he makes wise."

Four rhetorical questions: "Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

John Stott's book Essays in Evangelical Ethics captures the kind of vision for us today. It is the vision of who God is, the breadth of His plan for us, His wisdom, the expansive view of how we ought to live life:

"The vision we need is the vision of God himself; the God of the whole biblical revelation; the God of creation who made all things fair and good, and made man male and female to bear his image and subdue his world; the God of the covenant of grace who in spite of human rebellion has been calling out a people for himself; the God of compassion and justice who hates oppression and loves the oppressed; the God of the incarnation who made himself weak, small, limited and vulnerable, and entered our pain and alienation; the God of resurrection, ascension and Pentecost, and so of universal authority and power; the God of the church or the kingdom community to whom he has committed himself for ever, and whom he sends into the world to live, serve, suffer and die; the God of history who is working according to a plan and towards a conclusion; the God of the eschaton, who one day will make all things new.
There is no room for pessimism here, or for apathy either. There is room only for worship, for expectant faith, and for practical obedience in witness and service. For once we have seen something of the glory of our God, and of the greatness of his commission, we can only respond, 'I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision."

What emotional trappings have we brought into our relationship with God?

•Was there a problem with unjustifiable anger before we knew Him?
•Was there a battle with fear that stalked our lives?
•Did the spirit of negativism and criticism dominate us prior to that moment of commitment to Him?
•Was there an impulsive and impatient attitude we lived with, wanting everything at the moment we wanted it?
•Were we very hard on ourselves and riddled with guilt if faced with failure?
•Was there a moodiness to our disposition?

Let's see what others had to say about there own experiences:

William Cowper wrote - "Oh For a Closer Walk With God:"
Where is that blessedness I knew
When first I saw the Lord?
Where is the soul refreshing view
Of Jesus and His Word?

What peaceful hours I once enjoyed!
How sweet their memory still!
But they have left an aching void
The world can never fill.

Return, O holy Dove! return,
Sweet messenger of rest!
I hate the sins that made Thee mourn,
And drove Thee from my breast.

The dearest idol I have known,
What e'er that idol be,
Help me to tear it from Thy throne,
And worship only Thee.

Soren Kierkegaard – “In addition to my other numerous acquaintances, I have one more intimate confidant.... My depression is the most faithful mistress I have known”

Elijah - Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. Just like the rest of us, he experienced the problem of depression--that mental and emotional condition marked by feelings of discouragement, worthlessness, dejection, guilt, apprehension, and failure. Life is much like a roller coaster--full of ups and downs.

Peter's roller coaster ride -
•walks on water
•makes a beautiful confession of faith that Jesus is, “the Christ, the Son of the living God
•crashing down as he tries to dissuade Jesus from dying
•the mount of Transfiguration with Jesus, James, and John
•falls asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane
•cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant
•first to deny his Lord, yet first to run to the tomb when the women came back with the message of Jesus’ resurrection

I think you get the picture...

Help for the Human Heart

No, it is not an artificial heart that I was thinking about - again robotics over feelings - no, we want to first take an outward look and  recognize that as different as we are, one from the other, there are some shared feelings expressed quite universally.

Laughter is a universal language, according to new research. The study, conducted with people from Britain and Namibia, suggests that basic emotions such as amusement, anger, fear and sadness are shared by all humans.

http://www.tgdaily.com/general-sciences-features/48205-laughter-is-a-universal-language

Grief has always been considered a universal language.  Let me share the link below for an excellent article on a cross cultural dialogue regarding grief - there are definitely biological universalities - like crying - and then not so much.  It is a very good read - includes a short paragraph on whether animals grieve and then explains the process of healing - very interesting.

http://www.deathreference.com/Gi-Ho/Grief-and-Mourning-in-Cross-Cultural-Perspective.html

There are a number of movie postings describing The Virgin Story as one of the most emotionally powerful  movies of all time. The Virgin Spring tells the story, set in medieval Sweden, of a prosperous Christian whose daughter, Karin is appointed to bring candles to the church. Karin is accompanied by her pregnant foster sister, Ingeri, who secretly worships the Norse deity, Odin. Along their way through the forest on horseback, the two part, and Karin sets out on her own.

Ingeri encounters a one-eyed man at a stream-side mill, converses briefly with him, and then flees in terror. Karin meets three herdsmen (two men and a boy), and invites them to eat her lunch with her. Eventually, the two older men rape and murder Karin (while Ingeri watches from a hidden distance). The trio then leave the scene with Karin's clothing.

The herders then, unknowingly, seek shelter at the home of the murdered girl. Her parents, discover that the goat herders murdered their daughter when the goat herders offer to sell Karin's clothes to her mother. In a rage, the father locks the trio in the chamber and kills them.

The next day, the parents set out to find their daughter's body, with the help of Ingeri. Her father vows that, although he cannot understand why God would allow such a thing to happen, he will build a church at the site of his daughter's death because his conscience is forcing him to atone. As her parents lift her head from the ground, a spring begins to flow from where she was lying. Her sister Ingeri then begins to wash herself with the water, and Karin's parents clean her muddied face. 

Friedrich Nietzsche comes up with a statement that I am sure no one reading this will like -  “Watching suffering makes people feel good; creating suffering makes them feel even better—that’s a harsh principle, but an old, powerful, and human, all-too-human major principle . . . without cruelty there is no celebration: that’s what the oldest and longest human history teaches us—and with punishment, too, there is so much celebration!” 

(Nietzsche's influence remains substantial within and beyond philosophy, notably in existentialism and postmodernism. His style and radical questioning of the value and objectivity of truth have resulted in much commentary and interpretation, mostly in the continental tradition. His key ideas include the death of God, perspectivism, the Übermensch, the eternal recurrence, and the will to power. Central to his philosophy is the idea of “life-affirmation,” which involves an honest questioning of all doctrines that drain life's expansive energies, however socially prevalent those views might be.)

Jesus makes these comments in Mark 7:21-23: 

         “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.”

Lets continue with some more biblical illustrations that express feelings outwardly and try to define if God is near or far from us in each case.

•Jonah – But the LORD replied, "Have you any right to be angry?“

•Older brother to the prodigal son - . He had probably for years been jealous of his younger brother as their father’s favourite, spoiled and indulged as younger siblings can be, and he had deeply resented the father’s yielding to the whim of his young brother to go his own way, taking his share of the family’s substance and abandoning all feeling of responsibility to their father or the family or the inheritance.

•          Elijah - The voice of the Lord came to Elijah while he was in that cave. "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

 Being honest with ourselves in an attempt to explain our own sense of God’s nearness or distance is critical  and we will start by examining four questions.

The capacity to feel . . .

Which of us would want to trade away that privilege - to feel?

Yet at the same time those very feelings leave us desolated in some of life’s most difficult experiences.

“Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed.”

Many religions believe animals don't have souls and therefore are incapable of feeling - others believe that because animals don't have the capacity to experience suffering/or enjoyment since they lack the ability for higher consciousness, they cannot feel, while some believe they are unconscious beings or conscious automata. I can tell you that when I look into my dogs eyes, if what I am seeing is a reflection of how feel fine, but something tells me she feels too. When I come home and the first greeter at the door is my GEM and my wife gets extremely jealous - there are a lot of feelings!

http://www.spiritualriver.com/reader-mailbag-do-addicts-have-the-capacity-to-feel-emotions-does-it-help-them-to-know-that-i-care/

The link above describes how an addict can be perceived as someone who has absolutely nothing left in the tank to care about anybody else but themselves. The counsel provided sounds logical.

How best to harness this unique endowment and protect that gift from being abused is one of the cries of our heart.