The Complicated Gray: Perhaps, He Walked It FirstSample

Through His emotions it seems Jesus not only felt the emotion, He also chose love in many instances through those emotions. For the record, as a therapist I would also like to point out He also often communicated these emotions rather than bottle them up inside. Jesus had healthy coping skills. He would cope through communication, and when He needed the time alone to recharge and process, we read of Him taking breaks for prayer and meditation. We see in Mark Chapter 3 where Jesus reacts with a look of anger before feeling distress, or even in some translations sadness, about the stubborn hearts. Yet we read of Him healing the man with the withered hand. Jesus angers over our struggle to honor and follow the will of God. But at the end of the day, does not He experience grief the most? A sadness for our struggle to accept God’s gift and experience all the glory He has in store for us. When I work with clients, I often educate them that anger is a secondary emotion. It is what actually lies behind our anger that we must face, identify, cope with, and allow to pass. Anger is really about hurt, loneliness, fear, or shame. If we really look at the path and life of Jesus, we see Him in situations where he experiences hurt for sure, and in Mark Chapter 3 we see it expressed in anger, then grief, and then love. Our example of the complicated gray. When we struggle a bit today, what if we try to take a breath to feel the anger or sadness or grief? Take a breath, allow a little bit of room to open up to allow what else God has for us in that moment; the joy, the hope, and our faith. Hold both of those emotions at the same time. Breathe and pray. He’s got this.