Emotional Experiences

Even in laughter the heart may ache, and joy may end in grief. --Proverbs 14:13

Life has its ups and life has its downs, and God uses both to dramatically play off each other to give us an abundance of life experiences. Some people would like to have others believe that they never have anything negative or hurtful happen to them. They keep feelings and emotions stuffed deep inside and put up a false front in an attempt to display a happy face to the entire world. Either these people are emotionally constipated and have no idea how to grapple with true feelings, or they are pitiable, suffering in silence, failing to realize that God is there with them.

God created us with a wide range of emotions. He has given us the capacity to experience great joy when something wonderful happens, like graduating from college, finding the perfect job, or celebrating a friend's engagement. Our emotions are also programmed to include feelings of disappointment when a deal to buy a house falls through, a friend forgets an important occasion, or we stutter through a big interview. Instilled in each of us is a large emotional spectrum including everything from pain to pleasure, anger to acceptance, hurt to healing, and then some.

Since God is the designer and creator of our emotions, he is also intimately involved in the experiences that affect us. Because of this, we can be certain that he cares about us and understands us. He knows the extent of our innermost feelings. He knows how good it feels to laugh with friends, and he knows what it is like to share some tears with a friend who battles cancer. God even knows which emotions we attempt to hide and the lengths we go to as we try to hide them.

No matter what emotion or emotions we are currently experiencing (or hiding), God can give us peace about it. His plan is perfect. Even when we go through the emotional ups and downs of life, he is in control. The important thing we must realize is that even though our emotions are real and that feelings themselves are not right or wrong, we cannot let ourselves be governed by them. God wants us to surrender completely to him and lay our hearts bare before him. We need to leave everything in his hands and let him work out his plan in our lives according to his will.