“Ignoring our emotions is turning our back on reality. Listening to our emotions ushers us into reality. And reality is where we meet God...”
Peter Scazzero
There are four types of what I call “emotional heart attacks.” I’m referring to issues that if allowed, will rob us of our peace and contentment. What steals your joy? What scenarios cause you angst? What holds you back from being who God created you to be?
I used to take care of my emotional heart attacks by not dealing with my pain. Instead, I’d sweep the hurt under the rug of my heart and try to forget about it. Conviction of sins were swept under my rug. Ignoring the hurt from an offense and denying loss and disappointment from unmet expectations were swept under the rug of my heart. And not dealing with the lies I believed and the vain imaginations which resulted from them, made the lumps under my rug grow larger, till I began to trip over them. Trust me, emotional pain undealt with doesn’t work and sweeping my wounds under the rug only made them worse.
God is concerned about what we’ve swept under our heart rugs. In John chapter five, Jesus visits the pool of Bethesda, where the blind, lame, and paralyzed people laid, hoping for healing when the angel stirred the waters. The emotionally blind are those who don’t see how their hurt of rejection causes them to do things which brings about more rejection. Or those living under shame forces them to hide their true selves and live a life of performance. The lame limp along in life, unable to more forward fulfilling their God-given destiny. And the paralyzed are those who allow their fears to immobilize them as a result of believing the enemy’s lies.
While at the Bethesda pool, Jesus approached a man who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years and asks him, “Do you want to get well” (John 5:6)? Even though Jesus knew the man had been in that condition for a long time, He didn’t presume the man wanted healing. Likewise, Jesus doesn’t assume you want to experience emotional healing. He knows that processing what’s under your heart rug requires courage, determination, humility, and vulnerability. But Jesus also knows it is well worth the cost to experience freedom.
Do you want to be made well and experience emotional healing? If so, stop sweeping your hurts under the rug of your heart. Be intentional with taking care of your heart by processing your sin, your loss and disappointments, the hurt from offense, as well as the lies you’ve believed. Deal with each emotional heart attack and you’ll walk in wholeness.
“We are products of our past, but we don’t have to be prisoners of it.”
Rick Warren
Relevant Reflection:
What’s under your rug?