God communicates to us through both emotion and logic. I’d like to be bold and venture out to say that if we can only find him in one, we are not fully experiencing the presence of God—and to take it even further, I’m suggesting that if we are not fully experiencing God, we cannot fully love him. If we depend solely on emotion to enjoy his presence, we’re going to be confused when we can’t feel him. And if we depend solely on logic, we’re going to be confused when we can’t make sense of him. Both emotion and logic serve as conduits that connect us to the Lord, and they both have a place in our lives; however, because most of us are naturally inclined to one of them more than the other, we tend to resist the fullness of his reality by only seeking him through whichever one we’re more comfortable with. A lot of us can trace back our first encounters with the Lord to events that evoked emotion through worship and for others, it can be traced back to times that our intellect was targeted, so consider which category you identify with most. For those of us who are naturally inclined to experiencing God through emotion, we remember how the intensity of our prayers or the tears and passion that emerged through worship have become engraved upon us so that now, if those emotions fail to appear, we struggle to find any evidence of his presence and we risk feeling distant when the truth is that the Lord does not depend on emotion to communicate his reality and truth to our lives, and if we crave emotion and ignore the role of logic in our relationship with Christ, we depend on a fickle part of ourselves rather than the fullness of God’s reality that must extend further than the confines of emotion and venture into logic. For those of us who are naturally inclined to experiencing God through logic, we remember moments of intellectual clarity—sermons that preached evidence and times that our spiritual mentality was exercised with clear-cut explanations, analogies, formulas, historical information, and doctrinal studies. Those of us who are inclined to experience God from a logical standpoint risk doubt in a completely different way—as soon as the material doesn’t line up or seem relevant to our current circumstances, the excessive knowledge that used to satisfy isn’t enough. As soon as the information seems to have plot-holes or contradictions, we must be careful to not confine the presence of God in our lives to our limited understanding. The fullness of God’s reality must extend further than logic and into our emotions. Once we identify which one we’re more inclined to, a way to examine our spiritual lives and determine whether we are being challenged and maturing in our faith is whether we are seeking God through the alternative. So if you’re more inclined to emotion, seek God’s presence through doctrine and intellect. And if you’re more inclined to logic, ask God to soften your heart and learn to feel his presence through emotional vulnerability. It’s a good indicator of whether you’re growing in your faith if you can seek him in the one you’re less inclined to. ”Love the Lord your God with all you’re heart, with all your mind, and with all your soul.” We all know this verse to be the greatest command in all of scripture—to love God fully in that way. I don’t think you can love him with all of your soul until you can love him with both your heart and mind. I think encountering him through emotion and logic and loving him through both is the only way to love him with all your soul. Your soul constitutes all of you; therefore, loving the Lord requires both our heart and our mind.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 19:05:58 +0000
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