Harry Emotions

A few years ago I compared my emotions to Harry Potter's quidditch equipment. If you don't want to read the post, here's the jist: I felt like my emotions were out of control like the bludgers and golden snitch.

I am a highly emotional person. My heart and feelings motivate my thoughts and decisions. This is something that the world simultaneously promotes and discourages. Follow your heart, but use your head.

I have concluded that my younger self felt this way because I allowed external circumstances to dictate my emotions. It's easy to be happy when you're having fun. It's easy to love life when you're getting everything you want. It's easy to be discouraged when you put all your hope in earthly things.

God created us with emotions, but we weren't meant to be controlled by them. Nor were we ever meant to extinguish them. We have to find the balance between following our hearts and using our heads.

This concept is shown in 2 Corinthians 6:11. Here are two different versions of the verse (we English-speakers are so fortunate to have so many versions to study the Bible from):

"Our hearts ache, but we always have joy." NLT

"...sorrowful, yet always rejoicing..." ESV

No matter what external circumstances affect our emotions, we have an inner foundation to rely on. Life will excite us and disappoint us. We can feel the happiness and we can embrace the sadness. Neither time can we let those emotions overshadow the inner joy that comes from knowing Christ.

These days I don't feel like my emotions are bursting out of a box. They're just heavy. I'm not straining to keep them under control. I'm straining to let them run their course as I dig deeper to a more solid and reliable sense of peace and joy.

The world will bring me happiness, frustration, sorrow and everything in between. But the truth I know in Christ is constant. It is my only consistent source of joy.