Sadie Robertson Huff, Jennie Allen Talk Biblical Basis for Emotions
By Movieguide® Contributor
Author Jennie Allen discussed the power of emotions, why they are a gift from God and how they contribute to our healing.
“I judged my own emotions and possibly other people’s as well in my lifetime. I think the church has taught me that, and I think the world has taught me that,” Allen told Sadie Robertson Huff. “I think it’s all a reaction to what we know is out there as well, which is feelings are everything; our emotions are God. This is all that matters, is pursuing happiness, so we see people that have just gone completely off a cliff with their lives and their decisions because they have made emotions their gods.”
“So that is certainly not what I am saying, but in our own lives, we have overreacted to that way, and honestly, that way of life makes so much sense. I mean, if you don’t believe in God, then even Paul in Corinthians says if Christ is not raised from the dead, eat and drink because tomorrow you die. Go be happy. There’s nothing else, like, go do it,” she continued.
“So even the Bible tells you if there’s no God, like, just go ahead and live it up because it goes to black. But if Christ is raised from the dead, it changes everything,” Allen added. “And so, as a Christian, my understanding is God is my God, and He is emotional, and so emotions must be good. They must not even just be neutral; they must be good, and they must be good gifts for a purpose.”
One of the most powerful ways the Bible shows emotions is in Jesus’ interactions with the disciples and those he healed. While there were countless moments when Jesus could have gotten angry or frustrated with those around Him, He instead allowed them to express their emotions with Him before He would move.
“Over and over again, I mean, He would be there for people in their anger, He would let the disciples try to figure out where they were sitting next to Him, He would let them be completely freaked out on the boat while He was sitting there and had complete control over the waves. You see Him meeting the needs of the woman at the well and moving into her emotional life. You see Him not being impatient with Martha when she’s furious at Him for not being there when Lazarus died… and He’s just patient, you know. He’s just patient,” Allen said.
Jesus would allow those around Him to express their emotions because emotions are a part of being human, and they are gifts from God because they allow us to express ourselves and connect with people. They are why we can be vulnerable with people and God and let others into our pain.
“We don’t serve a God who is not compassionate and if any part of your brain right now is feeling on the brink of just falling into a pit of despair, I would say you have a God that will be there in that pit with you,” Allen said. “And I pray that you have people that will be there in that pit with you but that pit is not the worst thing.”
“That pit contains healing if you let it. If you actually reach for God in the pit, if you let other people help you in the pit. The best relationships will come from it,” she continued. “Your deepest moments with Jesus will come from it. It is not the worst thing to be sad, it is not the worst thing to be scared.”
Allen recently released a book that explores this topic further.
“Feelings aren’t something to fix; they are something to feel,” a description for “Untangle Your Emotions” reads. “As we discover how to name and navigate our emotions, we’ll learn how they can draw us closer to the God who built us—soul, mind, and heart.”
“We learned from a young age, ‘Okay, I shouldn’t cry, I shouldn’t act out. I shouldn’t be angry,’” she said. “But when we learn to feel our emotions and to process them in healthy ways, we see that they’re really gifts given to us by God to help us navigate a really broken world and connect us to Him and other people.”
Movieguide® previously reported on emotions:
Actress Candace Cameron Bure and NYT Best Selling author and trauma therapist Dr. Anita Phillips recently got together on Bure’s podcast to talk about how Jesus expressed emotions and why it’s so important.
“Jesus was an extremely emotionally expressive man. He expressed his emotional pain in ways that we would never do, in the way that our culture has trained us,” Phillips said.
“Jesus is crying outside the tomb of Lazarus in public, a man,” she continued. “Let’s think about how our culture would respond to that. We see Jesus in the temple, angry and showing it.”
Jesus’ emotions are shown throughout his life, including his rage, joy and sorrow.
“We see Jesus in Gethsemane absolutely overwhelmed. He literally says, ‘I am sorrowful unto death’ meaning ‘my emotional pain is so deep right now I feel like I’m going to die right here.’ We see him going to the three closest disciples saying, basically, please don’t leave me alone,” the therapist told Bure.
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