This season, we’re blessed with a set of Lenten devotionals by contributing author Lee Hinkle.  Find out more about Lee at the bottom of this article, or at hinkledownunder.com.

Reading

John 12:27-28 (ESV)
Isaiah 52:13-53:12 (ESV)

Meditation

Jesus knew what was coming His way. He knew that the words of Isaiah were going to be fulfilled. He knew that He was to become sin on the cross.

“Save me.”

[pullquote class=”left”]Too often our minds are captured by the images of a flat Jesus.[/pullquote]Too often our minds are captured by the images of a flat Jesus. One that showed little emotion; that went about His business with single focus but no expression. He wasn’t flat. Being fully man, he possessed all the emotions that He (as God) created before the foundation of the world. This gives us reassurance that we are supposed to live our lives without fear of our emotions. True, our emotion can lie to us—but so can our minds. We are in the flesh and fallen. This doesn’t mean we don’t lean into our emotional life.

“Save me.”

I didn’t cry, really cry, for many years. I thought it was a sign of weakness. I also didn’t cry because that sprang from sorrow. I hate sorrow. My favourite thing in the flesh, my idol, is pleasure. The opposite is sorrow. Even now when sorrow is present I will try to defuse it by getting angry at something small and insignificant. Or I will try and numb it in some way, and that is never healthy.

[pullquote]Our emotions are keenly part of us. God has placed them there to help make us more holy, to be more like Him.[/pullquote]“Save me.”

Our emotions are keenly part of us. God has placed them there to help make us more holy, to be more like Him. God is present in them and has felt them as well. Not only is He their designer, He has also experienced them. They do not define us. They do not have to stop us. But they do need to be embraced and submitted to the Father.

Prayer

Father, thank you for creating us with emotions that help us learn more about you; they help us to trust and they can cause us to stumble. Thank you Jesus for asking to be saved and for feeling troubled. You have been there before us and you can help us to navigate the path of righteousness through our emotions. Amen.

Lenten Action

Embrace the emotions that you are feeling. Do not wallow in them, but do not avoid them. Embrace them when they come.

Maybe you need a good cry. Maybe you need to do a happy dance. Maybe you have some righteous anger that needs a loud yelp into a pillow (we don’t want to scare people). Stop saying you’re fine when you aren’t. Trust that the people around you can handle where you are. If they are walking with you in Jesus, they remember that Jesus has felt that emotion, too.
• • •

Lee Hinkle is an American pastor who, with his family of 7, felt God’s call to pack up and plant a church in Fremantle, a town in Perth, Western Australia.  Last Summer, the Hinkles left Indianapolis and arrived in Oz to begin their work.  You can follow their adventures at hinkledownunder.com.