The Emotion of Me and We Part Two

 

Yesterday, I invited you to name and notice the emotions you were feeling…and to ask why you feel that way…then to ask why again.  To dive deeply and curiously into exploring and experiencing your emotions ~ to discover what is stirring or stinging within you.  Perhaps this is part of what Jacob was doing both when in his night vision of a ladder/staircase and when he wrestled with a being that we will hear next Sunday. 

 

What emotions stir within you this morning?

 

Paul Ekman says that there are six basic emotions: fear, anger, joy, sadness, disgust, and surprise. 

 

If that sounds familiar, you’ve probably seen the Disney movie, Inside Out, about a tween girl, Riley, who the audience is invited to see how the emotions of Joy, Anger, Fear, Sadness, and Disgust play out inside her mind/heart/soul.  Great movie ~ five out of five stars.  You should watch it…just as soon as you are done reading this meditation. 

 

I am not sure why Disney didn’t include Surprise, but still a great story about exploring what is in you.

 

When was the last time you experienced each of those emotions?  Maybe for you, it has been a while since you and joy went for an ice cream cone.  Maybe you try to dismiss or distance yourself from anger.  I grew up watching The Incredible Hulk on Friday nights.  The main character, scientist Bruce Banner, was played by Bill Bixby.  People would often ask me if we were related.  “Sure,” I would think, “Just talked to Uncle Bill to thank him for sending me the new Hulk toy.”  If you remember that show, the mild manner Banner would often say to someone, “You shouldn’t make me angry.  You won’t like me when I am angry.”  Because when Banner got mad, he would transform into the Hulk (a giant, green being with super strength).  During the transformation, Banner’s normal size clothing would get ripped and torn as the bulging Hulk emerged from within.  The guy must have spent a fortune on brown pants and white shirts!  The show taught me to be careful with anger…that it could be destructive and turned me into someone I didn’t want to be.  Now, I realize anger also can tell me when one of my values is being stomped on or stepped over.  I get angry when I hear racist or homophobic remarks, because I deeply believe all people are created in God’s image! 

 

Too often, we haven’t always taken the step to ask, why am I feeling what I am feeling.  Rather we just let loose with our emotion (the energy in motion) and if you have a problem with that, that is a you problem.  Remember, our emotions are data, not directives.  To be curious about why we feel what we feel and when we feel it and with whom we express those emotions. 

 

I encourage you today to explore the six emotions of fear, anger, joy, sadness, disgust, and surprise playfully and prayerfully. 

 

And may this holy experiment be an experience of the One who crafts and creates us to be aware and awake to our feelings.

 

Prayer: God, when You continue form and fashion us, You install software in our hearts that could feel the energy of emotions.  Help us, like the Psalmist and Lamentations, name and claim our emotions as one way to connect with You, ourselves, and others.  In the name of the One who wept, laughed, and felt all the feels of life, Jesus the Christ.  Amen.