Growing up when asked “How are you?”, we were trained to say, “I’m fine.” But sometimes, things didn’t feel “fine”. If you were especially spiritual, you’d say you were blessed. What we’ve found generally speaking is that honesty and vulnerability have not always been part of our spiritual answers. So if we don’t “feel fine”, how do we fix it?
When you look at the life of Jesus, one collection of data suggest Jesus had 39 different emotions during his time on earth. Now, some of you didn’t know that many emotions existed. But Jesus was delighted, sad, angry, wept, joyful, loved, felt loneliness, discouragement and encouragement. We discover that being honest about the way we feel is very human and shows strength, not weakness.
Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane on his last night before his arrest shows us the incredibly strong emotions he felt in his last days. He was incredibly anxious about what was in front of him as he thought about his trial, abuse and crucifixion. It’s all recounted in Matthew 26:36-39. Luke’s gospel shows he experienced a physical change due to the anxiety Jesus was feeling that night.
Jesus was so stressed he experienced hemotadrosis, which is a breaking of the capillaries near the sweat glands producing bloody sweat. Jesus says, “I’m overwhelmed to the point of death.” Jesus shows us his emotion and is honest about how he feels. I hope as you see Jesus in this story, it frees you from the pressure Christianity puts on you to be perfect and have it all figured out.
From this story of Jesus, he gives us an example of how we handle stress and anxiety in our life. First, Jesus is vulnerable with his closest friends, Peter, James, and John. He tells them, “I’m overwhelmed…stay here with me.” He doesn’t reveal that to all the disciples. Just three of them.
We should learn (especially on social media) to not tell everyone about what is going on in our world. But we certainly should have 3-4 close friends who we can be totally honest with on how we are doing.
Secondly, Jesus priorities his feelings with his faith. So many times, we rationalize if we feel a certain way, it must be okay or the right thing to do. But in the garden, Jesus says, “I feel overwhelmed. But Father, not my will but yours. I want to do what you want no matter how I feel.”
Finally, Jesus pours out his feelings to his Heavenly Father through prayer. See, we process our feelings with God in prayer. Jesus says, “My soul is overwhelmed.” What about you? Could you say, “Father, I’m so stressed right now or I’ve had enough or I’m really angry or I’m so tired or I’m finding life very lonely?” We must realized God can redeem those feeling but he can only redeem what you are willing to release.
My hope is you’ve got close friends in your corner, that you’ll line up your feelings with what God wants for you and you’ll never forget to take how you feel to God in prayer. Stay safe. Be Jesus. Blessings on your journey.