Emotions of the Lenten Season

“Emotions are the language of the soul; they are the cries that give the heart a voice.”
~ Dr. Donna Hart

Often when we think of Jesus, we don’t always acknowledge all the characteristics of His humanness in our thoughts. He, our Lord and Savior purposely, willingly, took on human form so that we would know that He could relate to every aspect and facet that we journey through in this life.

We think of the physicality of Jesus during this time of Lent because Jesus is being harmed and physically bruised by the nails in His hands and feet or the piercing of His side. We celebrate the blood streaming down because we know that this blood was the atonement for our sins. However, do we think about the psychological challenges that Jesus was facing? Those challenges are not far from the mental challenges we face daily.

One of the aspects that we encounter is our emotions. Emotions are the open awareness of psychological and physiological outcomes of expressions towards events and experiences that life has to offer.

I believe Jesus experienced a barrage of emotions during the final days of His earthly experience. Just the thought of the coming days and weeks of an impending end to His walk on earth, His thoughts had to be daunting. Jesus saw and heard the schemes that people were plotting against Him. Can you imagine knowing that people, friends, and foes, are speaking ill of you? How many emotions can you conjure in your heart at just the thought of such an awful experience?

Can you imagine knowing that in days you are going to die? The cascade of emotions would be overwhelming. While the physical pain Jesus felt was taking place, imagine how emotionally battered He was seeing people that He loved watching Him endure such pain. Remember, Jesus was human so I am imagining a wellspring of emotions that plagued Him during those difficult days.

But God…Our loving Father has not made us weak and He does not want us to fear because He is God. We are His children and we can call on Him for power and love to help control every emotion that we’re going through in every situation. Our Father has prepared us even for the most difficult days that we can have. When life is taking us through twists, and turns, and trauma is building all around us we have an egress. It is choosing to accept the presence of God in our life, living with His word hidden in our hearts, and truly loving God, ourselves, and the people in our lives.