Emotional Knapsack

Emotions are such sweet sorrow. Or are they such sweet joy? As a married man, that often depends on how my wife is feeling on a particular day.

I can never tell how my emotions are going to react to any given situation, or to no situation at all (no reference to the Jersey Shore character intended). Why must we be emotional beings? Why couldn’t God have just gone the way of the Stepford families or Simon Cowell, and made us all without feeling? It sure would have made the hurts and disappointments a lot easier. We could avoid anger, pain, sorrow, and tears. What a great existence THAT would be.

But wait, isn’t there a verse somewhere about this? Yeah, something about Jesus taking stripes on his back for our healing, I think. But, interestingly, it says more than that (in the classic King James Version no less—insert heavenly angelic music here):

“Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows…” (Isaiah 53:4).

Notice the word sorrows in that verse? This passage often gets attention for pointing us to the work Jesus did for our physical healing, but what about our emotional healing? Seems to me that far more people are in need of emotional healing than physical healing. The unseen pain and agony of emotional distress is everywhere. And here, we see Jesus, carrying not only our physical ills, but our emotional ills as well. Why don’t we hear that message more often?

What about your griefs and sorrows? Who’s currently carrying them? I’m guessing it’s you. And I’m betting that emotional knapsack you’re lugging around is getting pretty heavy. Or maybe it’s not just a knapsack, perhaps you feel stuck in a glass case of emotion. I’m not sure which one might be worse. I suppose the worst case scenario is that you would be stuck in a glass case of emotion while still carrying your emotional knapsack. Yeah, that would be bad.

But, the next time you feel that flood of painful emotion, remember this verse. Hand your grief and sorrow to Jesus. Step out of that glass case and hang that knapsack on the cross. I think he left a nail there just for you.

QUESTION: There are several obvious pop-culture references in this post, but two of them are subtle. Can you name the two subtle pop-culture references?

Like this post? Try this one:
When Faith Gets Messy
 
 

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