One of my main goals for this emotional journey of mine was (and still is) discovering what the Bible and the Church teaches about the intersection between emotion and reason. This is a big question, and not one to which I will likely ever find the answer. Nonetheless, it is a question that lays heavy on my heart.
We often walk around in this gray area between emotion and reason. We discuss how faith by definition cannot be based solely on logic, yet we argue that our faith is not illogical. We agree that emotions are an irreplaceable part of the human experience, and can be an important way to hear God speaking to us; however, we must not let our emotions rule us.
Have logic, but not only logic. Have emotions, but not too many of them. Stay in the gray.
So now that we’ve all agreed that this gray area is where we need to live…where is it? And what does it look like? I’m picturing fog, I’m not sure what you’re seeing. To me, defining how we live our lives based on fog seems…vague. Frustrating. Impossible. Wrong.
I don’t like the gray.
But now that we’re in the gray, let’s do a little remodeling.
It seems to me that we have a great model of how to walk in the balance between emotion and logic, and that model is found in (surprise!) the life of Jesus.
This is not to say that there haven’t been other good models of how to live this way. But to me, Jesus is the best example, because for Him, this intersection of emotions and reason occurs at the heart of His faith. He does not walk around preaching like a robot, and He does not let fear or frustration rule His actions. During His years of teaching, we see Him outwit Pharisees with logic, and we see Him weep for friends lost, yet neither of these characteristics are what defines Him. He does not rely on one or the other to live His life; He has faith that the Father will provide Him with both logic and emotion, and will give Him the ability to use both gracefully.
Now, I am not a theologian, and I do not plan on picking apart the Scriptures for you here tonight. I also have minimal to no plans of searching the entire Bible for verses where God tells us when to use logic versus when to use emotion. I do know that the Scriptures tell the story of a man for whom everything comes second to His faith. And it seems to me that herein lies one of the greatest distractions by which we’ve all been duped.
I’m sure you have felt the same tug-of-war between emotion and reason as I have; many have felt it, and many have addressed it. It has been an underlying theme of the human story for centuries- emotions lead you astray, logic destroys your humanity. Emotions make you hysterical, logic (ironically) clouds your vision of reality. But I would like to propose that we are called in a completely different direction- one where we look upward, with faith, and allow both logic and emotion to follow hand in hand. The two were not meant to fight each other, the way we have decided they do. They were created to balance each other, to fill gaps where the other is lacking until the day they can truly live in perfect harmony- when we are realigned and reunited with Christ.
[More to come on this faith-logic-emotion thing. It’s not easy to pinpoint.]