Emotions: Immaturity or Treasure?

 

Addressing concepts of human emotion: Should we transcend emotion to benefit a situation? Are emotions viewed as ignorance?

     Remember the phrases "big girls don't cry" or "men don't cry?" These phrases and similar ones seem to inadvertently shape cultures view on emotions. Many of us grow up thinking it's bad to be upset and that we are not allowed to be emotional about situations we encounter. Over the course of my life, I have noticed that emotions are commonly stifled rather than dealt with. When I really dissected this concept, I came up with contradicting ideas.   

     I believe emotion naturally occurs within human beings and cannot be stifled. We are human. Even if a situation is viewed from the appropriate point of view, emotions will follow. I would venture to say that emotion is not ignorant nor evil, but rather beautiful and beneficial if the actions following the emotion are rightly accomplished. I do not ever want to transcend emotion. I want to instead achieve discernment and self-control, so my actions may be thoughtful and pleasing to my heavenly father. Life without emotion would be dull and without lesson.

     "Men owe the grandeur of their their lives to tremendous difficulties." -Charles Spurgeon

     I feel many people attempt to avoid emotion because they believe it is negative, largely due to their past experiences. Experiences of people, including themselves, reacting negatively out of their given emotion. Instead of learning from the beauty of their emotion, people try to cancel it out, which worsens the problem over time.

     I believe the key is what you do with the emotion. What does it lead to? It is good to be slow to anger, but if it does occur, the lesson is in how you deal with it. Do you cause harm out of your anger, or do you squelch your pride and love instead by putting the other person above your own selfish emotion. Example: lets say you inflict harm on others because of anger...your new objective is to learn from it. Realize it is wrong and apply it to your life. The same concept can be applied to an array of different emotions.

     However, I do not believe all anger, jealousy and other emotions are always negative- sometimes these emotions can be appropriate. This is evidence that perhaps emotions are not evil at the origin, but it is instead the fallen nature of this world that sours our convictions. Most every good thing outside of God is broken- even our emotion.

     "There can be no knowledge without emotion. We may be aware of a truth, yet until we have felt its force, it is not ours. To the cognition of the brain must be added the experience of the soul."  -Arnold Bennett. 

Prerequisites for Creativity

Recently I have found myself lacking in inspiration and passion for activities I am normally  incredibly inspired and passionate about.

I love so many things, one of which is creating. To create life-oriented circumstances through the mediums of writing, dance, canvas, music... and the list continues. Creating is how I express, teach, illustrate, love, relate and so often is my therapy. I even describe it as "just breathing" to demonstrate its necessity to my heart.

I have realized that in order for me to complete these things, I must be inspired at least enough to pick up the pen or turn on the music.

The thing is, even my inspiration has a prerequisite. If my heart is not inspired by the Inspir-er Himself,  I cannot even complete things that are so close to my heart.

When I cannot complete these things, I feel hollow and unsure when living life in most all ways. I lack intentionality because of this.

In order for this series of events to take place, I must simply look to Him and trust him. 

I am thankful to identify this entire process so I may troubleshoot these situations in the future. However, I must point out that inspiration comes in many ways and I believe it is unreasonable to expect a similar sensation all of the time. Sometimes I have to do life without feeling like I am spurred on to do so.

Inspire-er>Inspiration>Creativity>Breathing>Pure heart, good conscience, sincere faith.
Without this sequence, all things are strained.(1 Tim 1:5-7)

I encourage you to seek your inspiration. Seek you inspire-er. You may just find your hope and purpose in life.

I apologize for the lack of posts this last month. I am excited to say I will be posting once or twice a week for the summer months.

Next post: Emotions.

A Wise Man Loves Truth, Reproof

I love Journalism.

I love working at the Patriot Talon.

     I enjoy these things because I am passionate about justice, truth and people. The untainted mission behind the art of journalism requires these elements in order to function properly and efficiently. Within the heartbeat of journalists lies the responsibility to deliver truth, shine light on injustice committed in government, administrations or communities, and also to tell the stories of real people; stories that would potentially never be heard. Journalists seek to give voice to the otherwise voiceless.

     However, sometimes the truth is not flattering, or a movement that evokes pride. Sometimes, the truth is ugly and offensive.

     My Patriot Talon co-worker and friend Andy Taylor made a great point concerning truth in his most recent blog post:

"Some say that truth is relative and that it means something different to everyone. But while the truth may be debated, it should not be attacked," Taylor said.

     We recently published an editorial driven by our desire for truth and justice, because we believe the student voice is something worth fighting for. Through various circumstances described in the editorial, we believe our first amendment rights are being tampered with. The issue at hand is much, much larger than the termination of a  specific adviser that many do not favor.

     Taylor relayed in his posting that we did not want to commandeer the front page of the paper with this pressing issue, because many of the other stories published deserved great attention as well, but because of the circumstances we deemed the content worthy.  

      Many negative comments condemning the quality of our content and publication as a whole, leave us confused.

     It appears students who are unhappy with the editorial want to see only stories that promote a positive image for the University, which cancels out a main element of our function as journalists.

      The reaction from the student body leaves us beat-up, but also grateful.

     We are grateful for the corrections for a couple reasons: We are thankful that the student body, and whoever else, is engaging on a topic that matters. We also welcome correction because we can benefit from the feedback, and benefit from simply enduring the reproof although we cannot respond or defend ourselves.

Perhaps the students are forgetting we are students too.
I, we, will remain obligated to honesty.

Just when you think you have no pride...

     The past couple months of my life have impacted my character in the most unique of ways.

     I do not consider myself a prideful person, nor do I contemplate my humility in vain, but recently I have been reminded of my pride. I've not been reminded of this reality because of some self-righteous, extravagant display of my pride, but rather by my lack of humility, and continuous ability to be humbled.   

      Just when I think I can't possibly be humbled anymore, unceasingly I am humbled again. 

     Although the causes of humbling can be confusing, painful, chaotic and the origin of heartache- I wouldn't change it.

   Through various happenings, which add up to borderline what I believe to be my mortal breaking point, I arrive at this humble place resembling that of the most unworthy.

     The truth is, it hurts to be humbled. It hurts when you don't feel as though it can worsen but it does.  I do believe there's hope though..there is beauty within the ashes.

     My hope is: Counting it all joy, and recognizing there is a place to find my worth even though my humanity is weak.

     To be honest, I believe I grow most through times of trial. whether the trial is self-inflicted or environmental. I hope never to find myself lacking in trials simply because I shelter myself from potential hurting.
    However, I do not wish to encounter difficulty as an extremist, believing I cannot grow otherwise. For not many desire to get in a car wreck, or smash their hand in a door, or a fail a friendship for frivolous reasons.
     Instead may I find myself taking advantage of every opportunity to learn and grow from the lesser beauties in my life.

     To me, it is the most beautiful thing to watch someone pass through times of hurting, or trial and see how they come out on the other side- to see someone learn from, and acquire beautiful characteristics out of such an unattractive situation is: what life is about.

"A man can counterfeit love, he can counterfeit faith, he can counterfeit hope and all the other graces, but it is very difficult to counterfeit humility."-- D. L. Moody

Behind my red reporter glasses: personal thoughts on student atheism

I recently wrote another Student belief story for the newspaper on the topic of atheism. I really, really enjoyed writing the article and I feel honored the individuals were so honest and transparent with me about their beliefs.

Many of us may be familiar with atheism, but I came to learn that the actual definition, as it plays out in people's lives, is open to interpretation. The official definition according to the American Atheist organization is as follows:

Atheism is the lack of belief in a deity, which implies that nothing exists but natural phenomena. There are no forces, phenomena or entities, which exist or transcend outside physical nature, nor can there be.

The most surprising information I found in my research is that atheists are the least accepted social group in the United States, even compared to homosexuals, immigrants, Jews and Muslims.  Many people I shared that data with were not surprised, but I truly was shocked by it. It's intriguing to identify the different levels of what "is acceptable" and the morals of the general public, and then also to find the speculation or claim of the absence of deity to be more severe than the harsh stances many hold to the above mentioned social groups. One student I interviewed said “some people basically equate us to Satanists."
Perhaps this needs to be re-evaluated, withheld and or redistributed. I am in no way validating any belief or stance, but instead hoping to provoke thought. Atheists are people with souls just like anyone else. On the same token, may each one of us strive to be people who are respected in the way we conduct ourselves.

In correlation with the student age, the current generation is said to be the least religiously affiliated in comparison to others with 29% absent from claiming religious affiliation. This number does not cross indicate that they are all atheist, but as Jesse Galef from the Secular Student Alliance said, atheism among students is growing. The number of affiliates with SSA has more than doubled in the last 3 years. There is a lurking question behind this data..why? What is the reason behind the movement?
Many could assert the reasons of knowledge, enlightenment, secularization, lack of morals etc. While credit may be owed to the some of the above speculations, may I also present the idea that many have been hurt by our American church in in some way. So many people I know have been burned by the words and actions of those involved with religion, and I feel this is a major detour-ant to faith. I am aware this borderlines oversimplification, and I do not intend to generalize a complex subject.

During my research I interviewed many people who profess atheism and found some unique perspectives. One individual shared that although he identifies with atheism, he feels religion has had an incredible impact on society, and finds it's roll in history to be essential. Another man I spoke with had been a part of the christian religion for 40 years, and spent 20 of those on a christian commune. The atheist community seems to be very diverse in spiritual backgrounds and walks of life.  

The last subject I found to be interesting was morality. A central concept through each one of my conversations concerning atheism is the idea that humanity has an innate sense of moral built within us, which is independent of any belief system.
 
Check out my story on atheism located on the right of this blog under "silly little reporter girl."

To be a part of something larger than me.

     I was sitting in church a few weeks ago, and for a moment I withdrew from my literal surroundings just long enough to realize one specific element- the overwhelming feeling of connection within the concept of gathering together for a central reason.

• Being together "as one" to acquire wisdom, offer praise and to perhaps evoke change.  

     I Work for my school newspaper. We work together to bring light on important issues, tell incredible stories of otherwise unknown people, and maybe even make certain "wrongs" right.

• The purpose of our work, whether we realize it or not, is much bigger than ourselves. 

     There's this beautiful thing called Young Life. Through Young Life, I get this incredible opportunity to befriend some beautiful high school girls and to walk through life with them. 

• The purpose of Young Life is much larger than me. The organization impacts the lives of others.

     There is just something so unexplainable and beneficial about associating with something larger than your life. The impact on my character is irreplaceable, and the sensation is unique to most everything else.

     I believe experiences like these will impact people if the motive behind the action is truly to help, or love other people; if your motive is truly absent of selfish gain.

     So, whether you serve at a soup kitchen, or adopt, or volunteer at a food bank, or work with mentally challenged individuals, or travel overseas, or medical missions, or sing at a retirement home- the action is larger than you. 

     If you are not already, may I encourage you to be a part of something larger than you. Make time for it in your life, because I might just argue that it IS life at it's origin. I feel most alive in the midst of selfless activity. I believe every single person should take part in this in some way. Even if you're not a "people person," there's a way to benefit the world around you. 

     Check out some amazing stories related to this topic like the For the Silent story or the SKAD story located to under "silly little reporter girl" in the right column of this blog.

Natural disaster is close to my heart.

Thinking of, and praying for Japan. 

 In the midst of busy American life, disasters taking place in Japan are resonating in my thoughts.

I traveled to Sri Lanka in 2005 to do tsunami relief in the tiny village of Kosgoda. 

Recently I have felt as if I am revisiting Sri Lanka and all the emotions that accompanied the journey.

Here is a look into my memory:

 Over 1,200 people were killed on this train during the Tsunami. It now stands as a memorial for the lives lost.

 This house was destroyed by the wave, as well as the people in it. Sadly, this house was one of the least destroyed that I saw. Months after the Tsunami, the rubble was still knee deep.

 

 

 

 

 Pastor Isaac. Truly one of the most beautiful souls I have ever met.

 

 

 Some of the girls on my trip after a day of work. We are wearing skirts we bought locally.

 

 

 The breathtaking Sri Lanka sunset.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sri Lanka: I am thinking of you. I have not forgotten your brokenness. 

Japan: Praying for you. Look to Him who stands outside of time. May he bring peace that surpasses all understanding.

Friends please take time to think about the world around us. While we continue on with buying our Starbucks, being concerned with gaining five pounds, and sports scores..thousands have lost all rights to humanity. So let us simply recognize that this place, this world, is much larger than us. If we do, beautiful characteristics manifest in our person. Selfish desires of any kind, personal suffering and loss become minimized through the lenses of world magnification.