EMOTIONALISM
For those of you who might not be familiar with the word Emotionalism, I know I certainly wasn’t, it is defined as the tendency to display emotions freely without any governess or regard for anything and to heavily rely upon or place too much value on those said temporary feelings.
In layman’s terms it’s called “getting all in your feelings”.
Yep, those same Temporary Feelings! That change moment to moment.
Someone once said the problem is not in our emotions, but in our emotionalism.
A person who is described as an emotionalist is one who lets their feelings get out of control. Their feelings rule their life.
We likely have all suffered from emotional overreactions at some point in time in our life. Here or there a little.
Perhaps it was in the heat of a moment, we said something to someone we love without stopping to consider the shockwaves of consequences it would send reverberating throughout that relationship.
After the initial damage, which caused terrible devastation, you still felt those tremors for days, weeks, months, or sometimes years afterward. It’s called trauma.
Or we’d be quick to shoot off an email, text, leave a voicemail or comment and wish we would have slept on it before reacting at the whim of our feelings.
Suddenly our emotions erupted like a volcano and spilled over and by the time we realized it, if we did at all, or by the time they receded, the damage was already done. We had just created a natural emotional catastrophe. Many were casualties.
Every eruption is not always outward, sometimes they are internal, and we are the victims of our own emotionalism.
The bomb that our feelings lit the fuse on made us sick, made us depressed, made us suicidal, made us alone and unwanted. We let our feelings do this.
The comic character, The Hulk, who got explosively angry and did damage everywhere, didn’t even like himself for the things he did when he was violent.
How could this type of thing happen? I’m a good person, we say to ourselves. I love God and try to do right. I’m not that person normally.
When we look back on these situations and carnage left in its wake, we tend to lean on our faithful standard answer, "My emotions must have got the better of me there."
But in saying this we raise a very serious question:
Am I in control of my emotions, or are they in control of me?
In all the times when you lost your cool, cursed someone out, made a lude gesture, hit, or hurt someone, became belligerent and offensive, at work, school, home, church, or wherever, was the question ever asked.
Am I in control of My emotions or are they in control of Me?
Still, we continue with life. Turbulent, dangerous, unstable, and often lonely.
Stumbling through situation after situation, circumstance upon circumstance, relationship after relationship all the while holding onto a royal flush full of emotions – ranging from joy and excitement to fear and anger, sadness and depression, then arrogance and narcissism, self-pity and then grandiose piety – all without a manual for how to live with or without this constant array of emotions.
Oftentimes others around don’t mind or notice the dysfunction, because they too are dealing with their own emotional bundle of chaos and confusion.
Emotions can be either positive or negative. Hating racism is good, hating the poor is not. It all relates to the user.
So, what is the answer you might ask. The answer to all of life’s questions is God.
Afterall. He is the creator of all things. Look for the FAQs in His Holy Best Seller , The Bible.
Too often we have looked elsewhere for answers that got us further tangled up. Friends, family, co-workers, spiritual advisors, professionals, they all meant well.
Some things you just must take back to the original manufacturer.
If you try and self-treat or self-diagnose you will find an array of literature that suggests you ignore or squash your feelings and replace them with positive ones.
Mind over matter type of solutioning. But ignoring feelings doesn’t make them go away.
Ever tried to forget a heartache? Your head may try but your heart isn’t buying it.
To navigate through this emotional battleground of our emotions, we need the Truth.
“and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32
Truth #1, Our emotions were given to us by God.
“then the Lord God formed, that is created the body of a man from the dust of the ground, and then he breathed his breath/spirit into his nostrils the breath of life; and then the man became a living being, an individual complete with a body, spirit and a soul.” Genesis 2:7
Our soul is what houses our will, intellect, and emotions.
Our emotions will never leave us, even when we transition back to our original spiritual state, we’ll still have emotions.
In Luke 15, the Bible tells us that there is joy and rejoicing among the angels in heaven over just one soul who commits their allegiance and heart to God.
Joy and rejoicing are emotions.
There is also a reference to another place where weeping will take place for certain souls that are being tormented. Matthew 13:42
It is imperative in this life and the next that we learn to manage our emotions.
Emotional management is one of the character traits for those who have God’s spirit.
According to Galatians 5, the evidence/fruit that you have God’s Spirit in you is that you show Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control. (Emotional Management)
Please join me over the next few Truths as we learn together How to rule our emotions and keep them from ruining our lives.
This is a Thompson Truth
