Burning Hearts
Lately, I have been over and over again running into a particular scenario with Christian men that involves a conversation about the role of emotions in the gospel. I can tell that some of my more emotions-based language (e.g. “how are you feeling today, Chris?” or “how’s your heart, Brian?) may be off putting for some. I am starting to more fully realize that my approach to spirituality may be scary and unfamiliar to a generation of men in the Church who have been taught that feelings are not to be trusted and are a tool of the devil. These conversations usually involve me bringing up the concept of spiritual process. I am asked, “How are you doing?” When I respond with what I am learning about myself internally and incorporate the word “process,” I am usually met with some sort of silence on the other end of the conversation or a reroute to a different topic. We live in an age where men have no idea what their heart is saying and we are all suffering because of it.
One recent conversation went a little deeper than usual. I began to talk about emotional awareness’ role in the sanctification (purification) process. This conversation reached a place where I began to talk about the Holy Spirit’s presence in the human being, the significance of temptations, and depression. The man I was having a conversation with then said something like: “Well, that’s your faith and your experience of God. Your faith is very emotional. My faith is more intellectual. It’s just a matter of differences.” And that was it. As if my personal faith rides high on the emotional element and rejects the intellectual.
The problem with our current Christian system is that it prioritizes the intellect over the emotions, rather than creating a healthy balance between the two. If you are like me, you grew up being taught that emotions/feelings in spirituality are not to be trusted and that the heart is deceitful above all things (Jeremiah 17:9). Any bubbling up of strong feelings, especially in relation to a tangible experience of God, is viewed with suspicion or fear. There is a strange perception today in the Church that you are either an intellect-driven believer or you are an emotions-driven believer. The thinking goes that intellect-driven believers know the Scriptures and reject experiences because they are not in line with the Bible. Emotions-driven believers don’t really know the Scriptures and instead lean more on the “Holy Spirit'' to guide them. In our ignorance, we don’t see the bigger, more holistic, picture.
God is love, and He has designed salvation to touch the entire human system - mind, body, and spirit. Paul writes:
“May God Himself, the God of peace, [purify] you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 5:23 (NIV)
The resurrection life (available to us in the here and now through the presence of Jesus Christ) brings the fullness of God and redeems all of us, including our senses that were once held captive by the devil:
“You were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at once time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts...But, because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead...and God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:1-6 (NIV)
This passage from Ephesians tells us that once the entire human system (spirit - mind - body) was dead - a lifeless thing without the divine presence. The senses were ensnared by the devil to do his bidding and gratify our old desires. But in Christ, we become filled with the resurrection life, which brings healing and wholeness into every dimension (spirit, mind, and body). Thus, salvation is about God saving (restoring and renewing) every part of us. This is accomplished through the personal presence of Jesus Christ, who is burning away all the old parts of us through His indwelling fire. This fire will leave only what belongs in the kingdom of God - in spirit, mind, and body.
It’s a matter of changing our system of thinking about salvation. As I have said and written many hundreds of times, salvation is not about some sort of intellectual message I must believe in order to suddenly find myself in God’s favor. In the death and resurrection of Christ, God has already chosen humanity (2 Corinthians 5:14-19). It is now a matter of us responding to this election so that we can partner with God in the healing of all things (Acts 3:21). Salvation is the healing of humanity’s corruption and the putting on of Christ’s resurrection life (Colossians 3:1-17). We shall bear the resurrection life and image of the Anointed One (1 Corinthians 15:49).
To deepen our sanctification (purification), we must develop emotional awareness and intelligence. The truth is that this requires effort, time, and spiritual process. It requires bravery, vulnerability, and community that we can trust. Inner work is hard. But there is great glory and realization in the process. Christianity isn’t just about intellectual truths, but about the working of Christ’s power within us (1 Corinthians 4:20). This power manifests most obviously in trials, temptations, and torments (the “day of evil” - Ephesians 6:13), through which we are called to stand firm and grow in divine strength. Through this process, our feelings become purified and redeemed. They become useful tools for our spiritual growth.
We don’t talk about emotions enough because our generation of Christian leaders (mostly men with fairly limited emotional tools) aren’t in tune with them. Worse yet, we learn from a young age that emotions are for women and that being a man means you don’t shed tears or show vulnerability, because vulnerability is weakness. This ignores the fact that the Messiah (the true “ideal” man) was staked naked to a tree and cried blood. Jesus wept (John 11:35). Because men are afraid of emotions or have limited access to them, our messages become focused on the mind and forsake the heart. The result is a generation of “believers” who can quote Bible verses and talk about the love of God but have little to no actual experience of it. This is the direct opposite of the point of Christian spirituality:
“I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpassed knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:17-19 (NIV)
The implications of this passage are clear: love is where the power of God lives. This love surpasses knowledge. To the extent that we are filled with an experience of God’s love, we are full of the resurrection life. In other words - the depth of our awareness of God’s love equals the depth of our Christian maturity and holiness. God is love (1 John 4:8).
Let the opening of the Scriptures illuminate and invite the love of God. Let the eyes of our hearts, not just our minds, be enlightened to the Spirit of Truth (Ephesians 1:18). We can become like the men on the road to Emmaus, who felt the presence of the Christ not only in their minds but also their hearts:
“Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself...then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?’” Luke 24: 27,31-32 (NIV)
