Have you ever thought about how odd it is that an Almighty God would subject Himself to emotion? Emotion certainly makes life interesting. One minute you can be in the heights of ecstasy and the next you are in anguish. It makes you wonder why God allows Himself to be vulnerable to a broken heart at all.
Imagine for a moment if you could shut down your emotion completely for a week. I'll bet you could get a lot more done. With no distracting tugs on your heart you could probably focus more on work and other goals. When you think of your life like that however, there is undoubtedly a certain staleness that goes along with it. With no emotion, life would seem pretty boring. Yet, I believe the ability emotion has to propel a person forward to do amazing things is incomprehensible. A heart activated is almost unstoppable!
Being blessed with a higher consciousness has plenty of benefits. We run this earth with our intellect as stewards. Yet, there is more to us than our intelligence. We feel. We are not robots. We live these short existences and every day is a gamble. Every day might be our last. Each day could bring fame, fortune, love, disaster, ruin, or sadness. This creates quite a spectacle for other created beings to watch. The angels enjoy watching our fragile existences. Our eternal spirits housed in jars of mortal flesh make for an interesting mix.
Despite not having all the answers for why God chose to make us like this, there are a few things we do know:
1. God the father shows signs of being extremely emotional in the Bible.
2. Jesus wept for His dead friend even though He knew would soon be resurrected.
3. The Spirit is able to be greived which is an emotional response.
4. We are built to be emotional beings. (Tear ducts and all)
5. God expects us to love Him with all of our emotion. It is a requirement.
6. God seems to respond to our strongest emotional outpourings.
Perhaps being made in His image means that in addition to being highly intelligent we also feel our way through this life. It's like we have a 6th sense that separates the way we make decisions from the rest of all creation. I am always intrigued by stories where a family member 'senses' that a loved one is in trouble. I had such a feeling several years back. I suddenly had a heavy heart and knew something really bad had just happened. As it turned out, at that exact time my sister had an automatic weapon pulled on her in a robbery several states away! There are countless stories just like this. Our hearts are an extra means by which we experience this reality.
Life is about more than using our logic. It is also about love. It keeps us from carrying out "Survival of the fittest", ideology or looking out for yourself first and doing whatever necessary to others in order to promote yourself.
This gift, the ability to love, helps us connect with our Creator in ways no other created being or animal can. We can understand fully what Christ's death for us really cost. We can understand how great the sacrifice was for a Father to give up His perfect Son. It's not lame. It's AMAZING! It appeals to each human heart.
Our nation's sixth president summed up Christianity this way: “The fundamental doctrine of the Christian religion is the extirpation of hatred from the human heart,” continued Adams. “It forbids the exercise of it, even towards enemies.”
How much do you want to be like God? Start loving people unconditionally-regardless of their income, appearance, social status, or behavior and you'll be well on your way to being God-like. We typically think being a god would be about unlimited power and freedom. However, God tells us if we want to be like Him, love people, even our enemies! Do that and you will start acting like your Father. I hope that I can learn to love people in this manner and become a man after God's own heart.
How good are you at loving others? How do you treat your waiter/waitress when their service is subpar? How well do you respond to erratic and aggressive drivers? How do you respond when others treat you poorly for no reason. An honest answer to these kinds of questions will reveal to you where your heart is at and what you need to ask for help from God on. May we all strive to have the heart of God! God Bless!
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