Is God for us or against us?--Part 2

George Herbert: "Ah my dear angry Lord since they dost love, but strike; cast down, yet help afford;"

Auden says that poetry is the "clear expression of mixed feelings."

Chris Wiman: "This is why poetry of some sort is essential to any unified religious life, and why the bastardizations of the Bible which erase poetry for the sake of clarity are so wrongheaded and dreary."

In order to apprehend whether God is for us or against us, we have to access our emotions and deal with them. PZ says that we must all have a religious psychologist with whom we regularly discourse. Our emotions are a mixed bag--is God for us or against us?

Yesterday, praise be to God, Debbie and I were each other's religious psychologists. I'm sharing this in hopes that others can receive the same blessing from their spouse, significant other, best friend, etc. It went something like this:

Debbie: Are you grieving over something? Are we okay?

Ellis: We are great. Do you perceive that there is something wrong?

Debbie: You seem detached. You were short with me when you got home.

Ellis (we had earlier been talking about church and whether to join): I don't feel like I belong. I felt like I belonged at First Baptist but the church leadership committed hairi kairi. I never felt like I fit in at our last church, nor do I at the current church. I love to teach, but I haven't taught in some years. I really miss it.

Debbie: You do have a gift for teaching. Maybe God has something else for you.

Ellis: For me, teaching is a mixed bag. I love to express the wonders of Christ, but I also like people's respect. The first is healthy, the second not so much.

Debbie: You are respected in your home.

Ellis (I am emotional as I write this): i never thought that I would have this amount of respect in my home. Had God not taken away the teaching and respect at church, I would have continued seeking it there when God wanted to give it to me where it matter most--with my wife and children.

So, Debbie's a wonderful religious psychologist. When we access our emotions, we can come to grips with our pain, which then reveals God's love.