Thu Oct 17-Why Deny Them?

Ecclesiastes 3:1,4 (CEB)

There’s a season for everything
    and a time for every matter under the heavens…

…a time for crying and a time for laughing,
    a time for mourning and a time for dancing…


Reflection

Have you ever been at a funeral, and something just strikes you funny? Or been in the middle of a celebration when you felt like crying? I’ve definitely experienced both. The urge to laugh at a funeral is potentially disastrous for a pastor, but nevertheless, it sometimes happens. And I recently found myself at a concert where I just couldn’t help my eyes getting teary from all the emotion the music carried for me. It felt ridiculous while everyone around me was having a good time, but what can you do?

The writer of Ecclesiastes suggests that there are appropriate and inappropriate times for each of these responses. In the days after September 11, which hit New York City so hard, comics there wondered aloud whether anything could be funny again. I thought to myself: “Of course we’ll laugh again. How can we not?” But their point was to say, “Now’s not the time.”

God gave us a whole boatload of emotions with which to experience life. But emotions can often feel messy. They surprise us at inconvenient times and in inconvenient places, making us feel like we’re not in control of ourselves. And sometimes we’ll catch ourselves judging ourselves (or others) for something they are feeling in a moment. So we often work really hard to keep ourselves from feeling much of anything at all – keeping a lid on our emotions, no matter how much it costs us.

But I believe life gets much richer when you stop trying to avoid the things you feel and instead allow yourself space to weep, to laugh, to mourn, to dance. God gave us all these emotions for a reason. They tell us something about ourselves and about the people around us. Emotions are powerful tools for understanding what’s happening in our world.

Why would we deny them?

by Joe Monahan


For Pondering and Prayer

Have you ever thought about emotion as a legitimate way of understanding more about the world? If you’re someone who tends to keep everything bottled up, take a minute today and consider that God gave you emotions for a reason. Then check in with yourself a few times today to try and notice how you’re feeling.

Prayer: God, thank you for laughter. And thank you for tears. We are grateful that we get to experience life in all its fullness, even when it’s hard. Help us to trust that you gave us our feelings for a reason. Amen.

Scroll to Top