I feel

I'm an emotional person. Okay, maybe over-emotional at times (I blame it on the hormones, lol). I feel alot, I feel too much, I feel more than I should. Sometimes I feel so much that people can't relate or understand, and sometimes even I can't make sense of my emotions.

Generally, we are discouraged from feeling, we are encouraged to be more logical than emotional, and I agree. As the saying goes, "follow your heart, but take your head with you." Where I don't agree is when one is made to feel weak and inferior because they feel (in a way that other people think is unnecessary). It is then comforting to see emotions all over the Bible, there's even an entire book only centered around crying. There are many Bible characters who felt "too much", and nope, they were not all women.

Take Elijah for example, who felt too much fear. The great prophet who controlled the weather with his prayers, the one who called fire on water, the one who raised the dead boy of a widow. After demonstrating God's power in an amazing way on Mount Carmel, Elijah got word from Jezebel preaching Karma:
"May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them." (1 Kings 19:2)
"Them" is those prophets Elijah disgraced and had killed. The Bible tells us that "Elijah was afraid and ran for his life". What? Who? Afraid of who? A women! No! Not Elijah! Well there you have it in black and white folks, a mighty prophet who was familiar with the roaring voice of the Almighty was scared of a women who sent him a one-sentence message. He was so scared he was suicidal. He isolated himself, went out to the dessert and prayed for God to take his life away. Sounds ridiculous doesn't it? But to God it wasn't, he understood.
He sent an angel, fed Elijah, then He spoke to him. He spoke words of hope, words that gave him direction into the future, words that cast his fear away and instilled courage in his faint heart. That's how God handled an "over-emotional".

Then there's Jonah. He really cracks me up. This one throws a tantrum of anger at God, furious because God has been companionate to the people of Nineveh. Not long before that the guy was dumped into a raging sea, and God was companionate towards him, providing a large fish to swallow him without digesting him (sounds impossible ne, well my God specializes in the impossible). Anyway this guy throws a huge tanny because God has done to others what he had done to him. The guy was so into it he actually asked God to take his life away. Insane. If I were God, I would have zapped Jonah there and then, struck his little toe with lighting or something. Nope, not God. He actually tries to make Jonah understand. And not that God took lightly to Jonah's emotional outburst; hear His response.
"But the Lord replied, "Have you any right to be angry?" (Jonah 4:4)
But still God handles him gently and calms him down through understanding.

God is the best person you can trust with your emotions. That's the lesson we learn from Hannah who was deeply troubled to the point where she couldn't speak audibly. She was always crying and no longer eating, and having being accused of being  irrational (aka over-emotional) by her husband, she poured out her soul to the Lord. He answered. Jesus himself, overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death at Gathsemane, poured out his heart to God in prayer. And God didn't look at him with eyes of disappointment at his display of "weakness". Nope, God sent an angel, gave him strength.

My heart can't get enough of this verse lately, it says it all for me:
"From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I." Psalm 61:2 (KJV)