“Eugene Peterson wrote so beautifully that the aim of the person of faith is . . . to live as deeply and thoroughly as possible — to deal with the reality of life, discover truth, create beauty, act out love.’ Yes, this is living. This is the redemptive work of God through us on earth. To feel at all, to notice it and name it and issue the hope of God to a desperate world.”- Jennifer Allen
In Chapter 14 (“Free to Feel”) of Untangle Your Emotions, Jennifer Allen leaves us with give gifts to notice as we grow in emotional health. She talks about gifts one and two today.
Gift #1: We have hope again. We need hope to display resilience and to persevere. And with hope, even with just a small sliver of that hope, it’s possible for things to be better than they are.
However, the Enemy’s great scheme and plan for you centers on hopelessness. Most significantly, Satan uses any tactic to take hope from you. But, with Jesus, you are never hopeless or helpless. Therefore, Jennifer exhorts, remember that your feelings possess no authority over you. Rather, because of Christ Jesus, you possess authority over your feelings.
Gift #2: We grow in grace toward ourselves and others. On way too many occasions, Jennifer points out, we identify less with Jesus’ perfect call to holiness. And more with the apostle Paul’s lament in Romans 7:15 where he states: “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.”
In conclusion, Jennifer stresses what she would do if given the choice between utter hopelessness and concession that things on earth aren’t exactly as we want them to be. Jennifer opts for concession, that ‘these things happen.’
Therefore, the author tries to keep two things in mind:
“First, I don’t need the people I’m sharing with to be perfect at every turn. Can you imagine if that were my standard? I would fail my own impossible test. To expect flawed individuals to somehow be flawless is a me problem, not a problem with them. . . . The second is this: I screw up so often too.”
Today’s question: Do you agree with the aim of the person of faith? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “The shades of existence”
