The [common] misunderstandings [Christians make regarding their emotions] are across the board. On the one end of the spectrum you have the anti-emotion view which looks at emotions as dangerous, unreliable and even undesirable. From this perspective, one of the goals of the Christian life is to ignore or suppress the emotions. All of the emotive words in the Bible are recast into mental or volitional activities.
On the other end of the spectrum you have the view that the emotions are king, they sovereignly rule the Christian. This can manifest itself in “I can’t help the way I feel” emotional victimization. I have seen grown men and women justify sins of all sorts because they “couldn’t help the way they feel.” This notion of the sovereignty of the emotions can also be turned into something quite mystical. From this perspective, one lives by the emotions. The emotions (how a person feels) determine whether they are close to God, what they believe, how they conduct themselves and even determine God’s will. In this camp virtually nobody considers the tougher doctrines like election or hell, because they don’t like the way they “feel.”
The correctives for these views are to see that the emotions, although fallen, are a good part of our humanity which reflects the image of God and that they are not soverign over us, but rather through the Word and Spirit we can grow in emotional maturity and balance.
I’m still learning to find that balance between feeling and ‘not feeling’. There are times where I am ‘emo’, and these emotions get the better of me and control the way I respond to people and situations. Then there are also times where I suppress emotions and just ‘chiong’, but I feel cold and robotic. But as quoted, the Word and Spirit can transform our emotions and the way we handle them.
I think I’m totally screwing myself up with this resolution but I will attempt to read three books every two months in the year of 2010. I don’t know if I would even have time to complete my other resolution of reading the entire Bible in a year, but what the heck. There’s just too many books that I bought and not read. And some good books are really worth re-reading, so I’ve included them in my schedule as well. So here goes:
Jan & Feb
A praying life: Connecting with God in a distracting world by Paul Miller
Counterfeit gods: The empty promises of money, sex, and power, and the only hope that matters by Timothy Keller
The call to joy and pain by Ajith Fernando
Mar & Apr
Knowing God by J.I. Packer
The cost of discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Where your treasure is by Melville Szto
May & Jun
When I don’t desire God by John Piper
In the likeness of God (the Dr Paul Brand tribute edition of Fearfully and wonderfully made & In His image) by Philip Yancey and Dr Paul Brand
The attributes of God by A.W. Tozer
Jul & Aug
The pursuit of holiness by Jerry Bridges
Jesus driven ministry by Ajith Fernando
Mystery of the Holy Spirit by A.W. Tozer
Sep & Oct
Living together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The four loves by C.S. Lewis
The normal Christian life by Watchman Nee
Nov & Dec
The gospel according to Jesus by John MacArthur
The imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis
The problem with pain by C.S. Lewis
I think I shall play cheat by starting now, probably with the first two books. I was so excited when I found them in SKS…
This blog is an avenue for my writing (although I think I do more linking and quoting than write original stuff). And to tell the truth, I realised that I enjoy writing. It’s a channel for creative expression. And I realised how much I want to be heard (narcissist!). So whether you blog or journal, continue to write. If you don’t, start something. Here are some quotes to inspire you, thanks to Justin Taylor’s post:
Calvin, citing Augustine: “I count myself one of the number of those who write as they learn and learn as they write.”
John Piper: “Writing became the lever of my thinking and the outlet of my feelings. If I didn’t pull the lever, the wheel of thinking did not turn. It jerked and squeaked and halted. But once a pen was in hand, or a keyboard, the fog began to clear and the wheel of thought began to spin with clarity and insight.
Arthur Krystal: “Like most writers, I seem to be smarter in print than in person. [Me too!] In fact, I am smarter when I’m writing. I don’t claim this merely because there is usually no one around to observe the false starts and groan-inducing sentences that make a mockery of my presumed intelligence, but because when the work is going well, I’m expressing opinions that I’ve never uttered in conversation and that otherwise might never occur to me. Nor am I the first to have this thought, which, naturally, occurred to me while composing. According to Edgar Allan Poe, writing in Graham’s Magazine, ‘Some Frenchman—possibly Montaigne—says: ‘People talk about thinking, but for my part I never think except when I sit down to write.’ I can’t find these words in my copy of Montaigne, but I agree with the thought, whoever might have formed it. And it’s not because writing helps me to organize my ideas or reveals how I feel about something, but because it actually creates thought or, at least supplies a Petri dish for its genesis.”
Philip Yancey (from Finding God in unexpected places) [my own addition]: I became a writer, I believe, because of my own experiences of the power of words. I saw that spoiled words, their original meaning wrung out, could be reclaimed. I saw that writing could penetrate into the crevices, bringing spiritual oxygen to people trapped in airtight boxes. I saw that when God conveyed to us the essence of his self-expression, God called it the Word. And the Word comes in the most freedom-enhancing way imaginable.
I’m amazed at the amount of time people spend on the internet. I’m not against technology, but all tools should be used to their best advantage. We should be spending our time on things that have staying power, instead of on the latest thought of the latest blogger—and then moving on quickly to the next blogger. That makes us more superficial, not more thoughtful.
I’m interested in technology, especially that related to the interest. Aren’t you intrigued at how this big world is made smaller through social networking sites and forums, how people seem to be more interconnected, yet people are spending more time with their computers than real flesh-and-blood beings? But like what J.I. Packer said, technologies are just tools. They are not the end in themselves. We should invest our time in things that really last.
Actually, his words kind of disturbed me. I think that’s what I do, i.e. I visit Christian blogs for daily inspiration and to know what prominent Christian pastors and authors have to say on contemporary issues, and even theology. Then I read and bookmark them for further reflection. Sometimes I blog about them, sometimes I don’t. But what does that do to me? I must say that some articles really helped me to reflect on my life, e.g. my praying, reading, being… Their effects and impacts are of varying degrees, but yes, I think I do spend more time thinking. Perhaps it’s because I read with a purpose: I want to share inspiring articles with others with the hope that they too would be inspired. So this forces me to read intently. So I guess reading blogs is not such a bad thing for me (I hope!).
Advent is celebrated in the American continent before the 25 Dec Christmas day, starting from the fourth Sunday before Christmas. Advent means ‘coming’ or ‘arrival’, and I didn’t really comprehend the remembrance of Christ’s coming in the context of Christmas when He has come (and gone). The feeling of anticipation is different on this side of Christmas. But a song sung at Worship Service helped me to have a better insight at the expectation of His coming:
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Refrain:
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, O come, great Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes on Sinai’s height
In ancient times didst gave the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.
Refrain
O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory over the grave.
Refrain
O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Refrain
O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Refrain
The sombreness of the song underscores the deep yearning of the Israelites for the long-awaited coming of the Messiah, the Chosen One of God, to free them from the rule of Rome. Yet Jesus came not to free them from foreign reign, but to ransom us all from the bondage of sin. What is ‘ransom’? It is to pay a price to redeem. ‘The wages of sin is death…’ (Rom 6:23a), and He paid that price.
