Up and Down

Yesterday our weather was in the balmy 80s. Today we are stuck in the 40s. I never wished to live in a place like Hawaii where the temps stay the same year round. But this is crazy! Who would think that weather could be bi-polar? Well, at least a teeter-totter can keep life interesting.

I’m reminded that my emotions are not always as stable as I wish. After a day of highly charged energy due to what I am doing or who I am with, the next day usually is a let down. I am reduced to a quiet, mellow, hum-drum kind of state. It’s all part of the balance of life’s cycles.

How can we be happy one day and sad the next? Or both at the same time? Emotions can be confusing. But they aren’t bad. I wouldn’t want to be just blah all the time, would you? God designed us as emotional beings. He has emotions, too. Sometimes He is ecstatically happy and sometimes grieved with sorrow.

Have you ever wished you could have been with Jesus and His friends at a party and listened to Him laugh? He was also “a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,” as Isaiah predicted (Isaiah 53:3). Jesus wept over Jerusalem and at the tomb of His friend, Lazarus. I’m afraid I would have been scared to death if I had witnessed the emotional angry outburst in the temple when Jesus overthrew the tables of the cheating money changers. Talk about radical swings!

Does that mean that all of my emotions are justified? No. Mine are inappropriate at times. My motivations are not always pure. It’s like all things that God created. He intends them for good, but Satan wants to use them for evil. Who wins in controlling your mood swings?

Ecclesiastes 3 reminds us that there is a time for everything. It lists a lot of things, including “a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.” Let’s yield our ups and down as tools in the Master’s hands to demonstrate His love. Here’s the pattern to follow: “Let the full richness of Christ’s teaching find its home among you. Teach and advise one another wisely. Use psalms and hymns and Christian songs, singing God’s praises from joyful hearts. And whatever work you have to do, either in speech or action, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, thanking God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:16-17 J. B. Phillips).

Where do you find yourself emotionally today? God can somehow use you, wherever you are in the spectrum. Up…down…whatever. Can you offer it all to Him?