Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you. (1 Peter 4:12)

Facing difficulties is something that often makes us question God, life, and ourselves. But as Peter writes, we shouldn’t be surprised by such things. The context of this verse is being insulted for being a follower of the Messiah. That’s something to be proud of, not ashamed of. If we are truly children of God, then we are on the winning team, and while some people may resent that, we shouldn’t let that get us down.

But not all difficulties in life appear to be directly related to taking a stand for our faith. Difficult things just happen: Injuries, sickness, and so on. The little annoyances of life are better ignored; but what about those other bigger issues that are not so easily blown off?

Both Paul and James say that difficulties build character:

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Romans 5:3-5).

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing (James 1:2-4).

This character building should not be understood as impersonal cause and effect. But rather God is personally involved in this process:

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it (Hebrew 12:7-11).

The writer of Hebrews wants his readers to understand harsh difficulties in terms of God’s discipline. Discipline isn’t always punishment. A better word is “training.” And as everyone knows, good training is hard; even painful at times. It goes against our grain as it trains us to do something very different from what comes naturally to us.

It seems to me that God confronts me on issues in my life at the most inconvenient time; inconvenient to me, that is. But isn’t that how disciplinary training works? It happens on the trainer’s terms, not mine. It can be so frustrating to deal with my issues, especially when I am in the middle of acting out! But so what? God is disciplining us as a loving Father. Perhaps we would do well to cooperate with him when we get called out on things.

A lot of people say that the way we picture God is largely dependent on how we view our earthly fathers. I understand that. I have struggled with that myself. But from God’s perspective, that must be a huge rip off. Why should we base our understanding of anyone based on anyone else—let alone God! Some of us have had great fathers; others—not so much. But the way to know God is to get to know God for himself through his Word. And his Word tells us that his discipline is based on love beyond comparison and is 100% absolutely for our good.

Understanding God’s motive in using difficulties for our good, doesn’t automatically tell us how to respond to difficulty. Just because problems are thrown in our direction, that doesn’t mean we have to take it. One of the purposes of the Bible is to help us know how to deal with life effectively. Sometime we need to endure pain; other times we should avoid it; and other times confront it. Jesus said that if we are persecuted in one city don’t stick around, go to the next one (see Matthew 10:23). King David understood this. Before he was king, during the reign of King Saul, David suffered greatly due to Saul’s jealousy of him. One day Saul tried to kill David with a spear. But David, who so trusted God, didn’t think that it was God’s will for him to take the spear to his heart. He got out of the way. So we too need wisdom to know how to handle what’s thrown at us.

We shouldn’t be surprised when we face difficulties, it happens to everyone. If it’s for the Lord, learn to be happy about it. But whether it is or not, it benefits us more than we know. And let’s not forget that we always need God’s wisdom to know how to deal with what comes our way in life.

Now for the big question: Why do bad things happen? That’s the question no one seems to be able to answer, but I am going to try. First, some bad things are simply the result of living in a broken, sinful world. Ever since Adam and Eve rebelled against God in the Garden of Eden, the world we live in is not what it should be. Evil has affected every area of life, and believers are not exempt from day-to-day, big-and-small problems. Sometimes this is the only explanation for difficulties.

Second, we are called to confront that evil. We are on the winning team, but we still have a game to play—a game of life & death (in know it’s not a game, but stay with me here). It’s difficult because the opposing side plays for keeps and has no problem playing dirty. This is a game of rescue in which we are called to bring God’s salvation and his blessing to the nations of the world. So we shouldn’t be surprised when we face opposition. If you are truly a follow of the Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah, you are not a victim in this game. You are a victors. So let’s learn to play as victors.

All scriptures, English Standard Version (ESV) of the Bible

Last month I attempted to provide a biblical perspective on Disney’s hit movie, “Inside Out” (https://alangilman.ca/2015/07/21/pixars-inside-out-a-biblical-perspective/). At that time I commended the film for how it effectively illustrated the value of a wide array of human emotions, including those that may be regarded as negative, sadness in particular. I went on to explain, however, a weakness in the film’s depiction of human psychology. While likely unintended by the writers, there’s an implication that we are victims of our feelings. My eleven-year-old son certainly got that impression. He heard me referring to how, in the Japanese version of the film, broccoli was replaced by green peppers, because in Japan they relate better to a child being repulsed by green peppers. But according to my son, Riley, the main character in “Inside Out,” wasn’t repulsed by the broccoli (green peppers, if you are in Japan), but rather it was the emotion of disgust that caused her to react that way.

In my attempt last month to correct the notion that we are nothing more than the result of our feelings, I wrote:

Whether or not you regularly experience a battle of emotions within you or you are one of the few who are emotionally balanced, your feelings are not you. You are called to be a child of God, whose identity can only be found in your Creator. You don’t have to be a slave to your emotions. If the Spirit of God lives in you, your emotions will serve you as you serve God.

A good friend of mine, who is also a psychologist, expressed concern over my statement, “your feelings are not you,” thinking I may have been detaching emotions from the human person. If my feelings are not “me,” then what are they? Are they separate from me? Are they illusionary? He and I worked this out over email. He is no longer concerned about what he perceived I was saying.

I would like to clarify what I really meant by “your feelings are not you,” just in case anyone else misunderstood me. But first, I’d like to mention something I realized through my discussion with my friend. I had failed to take into account how people, whole cultures in fact, relate to emotions differently. I grew up in a household where emotions flowed freely. My parents and brothers wore their emotions on their sleeves, on their faces, and every other part of their bodies, often leaving destructive traces of their presence everywhere. It wasn’t all negative, however. My family of origin was also passionately creative and engaging. Everyone was good at telling stories. We talked loud, we laughed loud, and we cried, even the men (actually in my case I had lost the ability to cry, until God restored to me the wonderful gift of tears. But that’s a story for another time). And so I grew up amidst a great deal of emotion. Tragically, too often those emotions were out of control and brought with them much grief. As for my wife, children, and me these past many years, I am glad to say that we have continued the legacy of expressed emotion, but without most of the grief. Not that we co-exist in perfect harmony, but the Lord has given us the grace to, for the most part, channel our various emotions in constructive ways. Forgiveness – something absent earlier in my life – really helps.

Not everyone is accustomed to an overly charged emotional environment as I am. So when I wrote, “your feelings are not you,” I didn’t have in mind people who have experienced the negative consequences of emotions, not from their overuse as I have, but from their underuse instead. Perhaps you were brought up to regard emotions with great suspicion to the point where feelings and desires were never to be indulged or trusted. Even now you may have a difficult time accepting that emotions are a vital part of you (my friend’s point) and that when properly understood, they are an essential aspect of effective living.

One aspect of my communicating an integrated, holistic understanding of the entire Bible is bringing to people’s attention bad filters we consciously or unconsciously have that prevent us from fully engaging the whole Bible. A misunderstanding of the role emotions play is one such filter. Regarding emotions as sinful in themselves cuts us off from much of what God has revealed in his Word. Joy, anger, disgust, fear, and sadness, the five emotions featured in “Inside Out” are all portrayed in the Bible at various times in a most positive light (I know there are more emotions than this, but I am trying to make a point). Here is a small sampling:

Joy: Adam’s being introduced to Eve for the first time (Genesis 2:23). The Israelites song after crossing the Red Sea (Exodus 15:1-18). Nehemiah’s statement about its importance (Nehemiah 8:10). Several Psalms (Psalms 30:11; 100:1-2; 126:3; etc.). Yeshua’s delight at God’s revelation to “little children” (Matthew 11:25). Paul’s command to rejoice (Philippians 4:4).

Anger: King Saul’s righteous anger (1 Samuel 11:6). Elisha’s words to the King of Israel (2 Kings 13:19). Yeshua’s indignation over the disciples preventing children from coming to him (Mark 10:14) and his cleansing of the temple (Mark 11:15-17). Paul’s confrontation of Peter’s compromise (Galatians 2:11) and his words to the Judaizers (Galatians 5:12).

Disgust: Those things which are an abomination (disgusting thing) to the Lord (Leviticus 18:22). The loathing of the faithless (Psalm 119:158; cf. 139:21), the “lukewarm” that Yeshua spits out of his mouth (Revelation 3:16).

Fear: Many references to fearing God (e.g. Psalm 111:10). Note: I am aware that people tend to reject the idea that fearing God includes an aspect of being afraid, but I think that the emotion of fear is more connected to reverence than we may realize.

Sadness: God himself grieves (Genesis 6:6-7). The prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 9:1). Nehemiah was sad in the presence of the King resulting in a positive outcome (Nehemiah 2:1-8). Yeshua wept at Lazarus’s tomb (John 11:35). Paul was continually sad over the plight of his kinsmen, the Jewish people (Romans 9:1-3). And in the letter in which he calls for continuous joy, he also expresses sorrow (Philippians 2:27).

It would be most helpful to do an emotional study of Scripture. There are few passages that are devoid of feeling even though for some of us we may have to stop and carefully think about what we are reading in order to begin to sense the passion throughout. I doubt that it’s only because of my expressive emotional background that I make the claim: take out emotion from the Bible, and you have nothing left. You might point to supposed unemotional passages such as the genealogies. Maybe you don’t care, but there’s a lot of people out there who have a lot of emotion regarding family trees. And why not? Every name is a story, a link to the past, giving meaning to the present. Maybe if we grasped their importance, we would emote more over them. Remember that Paul needed to write to at least one group of believers and tell them to tone down their interest in genealogies (1 Timothy 1:4; Titus 3). And you might find the book of Leviticus boring, but it wasn’t so to the priests of old, who would have gotten into big trouble if they didn’t follow its directions carefully. They would have had feelings about that, not to mention how we would feel if we could only grasp its importance for understanding Yeshua’s sacrifice for us, which is perhaps the most emotional event in all history.

I hope I have made clear what might have been fuzzy last month: emotions are an essential part of us. But that doesn’t mean that we should define ourselves by our emotions. While our feelings may appropriately connect us to other people and our environment, allow us to express ourselves effectively, and be necessary outlets for the events of our lives, they were not designed to master us. Emotions are great when they are a reflection of reality, but they can be misinformed and misguided. Our need of the fruit of the Spirit called, “self-control” (Galatians 5:23), reminds us that there is something other than emotions that should be in the driver’s seat of our lives. The directive “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15) implies that we can and should subjugate our emotions for the sake of others.

So don’t be confused. While “your feelings are not you,” they are yours, given to you by God as an aspect of being created in his image. Like every other part of creation, our emotions have been affected by sin. But if we have put our trust in Yeshua as Messiah and Lord, they are being renewed by him that we might learn to express ourselves as the holy children of God we really are.

Disclaimer: The following is strictly satirical in nature, but the warning is real.

GlobeHackNews – August 20, 2015. New York, London, Tokyo, etc. Not to be outdone by the leak of millions of alleged users of extra-marital-affair web site, Ashley Madison, notorious hacker Natas has released a searchable database of the personal private thoughts of approximately 2.5 billion people worldwide. Natas claims to have had access to this information for some time, but only now has shouted it from the rooftops, so to speak. “Face your truth, #minions!” Natas tweeted at midnight GMT today.

Unlike the Ashley Madison affair, where some names and addresses may have originated from other parties, the ownership of each thought is verifiable, since the human brain is a fairly closed system. But some experts claim reason to doubt the database’s accuracy. “Natas is a master of deceit,” says Dan Isle, director of public affairs, Skeptics International. “He has made grandiose claims in the past. Everyone knows he has acute ego issues. He’ll do anything to get attention, and doesn’t care who he takes down with him.” Isle has a point, but when asked about his own plot to steal his best friend’s girlfriend during his high school prom twenty years ago, he refused comment.

“The cat is out of the bag,” says P. Astor Graceman, Senior Advisor, the Truth Company. “We knew it was only a matter of time before the thoughts of every man, woman, and child would be broadcast worldwide. We have issued warnings, encouraging everyone to take every precaution to guard their thought life. We just didn’t know it would happen so soon.” Asked if there is anything the public can do now that our deepest secrets have been exposed. “Absolutely!” says Graceman. “But remember, not all thoughts should be of concern. Much of what goes through our heads is fluffy nonsense. There’s lots of good stuff in there too. It’s only the bad stuff we need to be concerned about.”

What then can be done about the “bad stuff”? Graceman, suggests the following:

1. Own up. Honesty is the best policy. Any attempt to cover up the truth will only make matters worse.
2. Trust in Jesus the Messiah. The Son of God died for our wrongs, both the public ones and the very secret ones. There is nothing too terrible that his blood cannot cover.
3. Wrong thoughts and wrong actions are ultimately offenses against God. If we confess to him, he will not only forgive us our wrongs, but cleanse us from their effect.
4. Take inventory. Some thoughts are simply thoughts. Taking action is another matter. Where wrong thoughts have led to wrong actions, apologize to offended parties. Make restitution where possible.

Cautionary note: As a rule of thumb confession of wrongs should only be as public as the infraction. It is unadvisable to confess the details of secret thoughts to others. Doing so will only cause unnecessary damage. Take evil thoughts seriously. Start by taking them to God alone. If they are out of control, seek council from a pastor or counsellor.