Why We Must Stop Labeling Negative Emotions as “Bad”

It likely will take you less than three minutes to run across a post, article, or Facebook thread declaring, “Think positive” or “Sending ‘good thoughts’ your way”, as if positive thinking alone is magic, this idea that we can gather our “plus energy” and use it for our benefit or other people’s gain.

Hollywood has substituted it, Oprah has glamorized it, and the latest author is likely promoting his/herself as a result of this superstitious thinking stating…..

We can draw or repel, ward off or attract certain people or “energies”, situations or outcomes, just by the state of our labeled emotions.

I must admit, there were seasons in my past I was susceptable to this thinking, mostly in churches where I learned, my thoughts or emotions could be harnessed or controlled, so much so that it could trump the sovereignty of God, somehow manipulate outcomes, or influence situations around me for my own personal benefit.

Yet, when failure, loss, heartbreak, or sickness came….and it always did….this mentality that we are our own mini-god, running from anything negative and “blessing” the universe with our so-called positive energy or kharma, eventually fails us, even the most optimistic can be thrust into the pits of despair.

Worse yet, I have seen people as a result, get mad and then blame God, critcizing Him for not responding how they wanted because they felt; as a result of their good behavior, they “deserved” God to respond like they wanted.

“I am a Christian”, or “I have been a good person”, “Why is bad happening” they slingshot back at God.

It’s as if they’ve been drenched with a messianic complex, but don’t even see it, until it is too late…

Until their thinking somehow justifies, God deserves to be blamed for their faulty theology created by their own logic using their own manipulation or some occult practices of mind-control….

Rules God never played by; teachings, Jesus never preached about; following a worldly thinking that was never written in Holy Scritpure.

If we are flawlessly called to abide by some “positive perfection” in our behaviors, never getting mad, feeling sad, or crying out in desperation….why…no really, please think with me, why did Jesus demonstrate those characteristics in Scripture?

Wasn’t He perfect? Wasn’t He God in the flesh who came down to model God-desired living?

Yet, Jesus turned tables in anger (Matt. 21:12-13), wept in real depths of grief (John 11:35) and cried out to God in complete desperation, begging Him to take away the burden He was about to painfully bare on the cross. (Matt 26:39)

God didn’t spare suffering from Jesus, in fact Isaiah 53:10 says it delighted God/was His will for Jesus to suffer….

Yet somehow we think God will sweep us up in a life of flawless perfection if we just think positive thoughts, live rightly, make good choices or never show any negative emotion?

Where does this logic come from? Show me the basis of that throughout Scripture?

And what about sickness? The blind man suffered, yet Jesus desired to reach him. His disciples instantly concluded, the man or his parents must have sinned to “deserve” such an affliction.

But Jesus declared….Even blindness was allowed so that Jesus might be magnified through suffering.

Have we twisted theology, got so deluded in our thinking, “borrowed” the world’s new age misteachings offering us control, somehow concluding that Jesus is only glorified through health, wealth and prosperity?

Where is this “happiness is the goal” theology in the Bible?

If you believe Jesus somehow only loves, blesses, or expects positive emotions, can you substantiate that within the full context of Scripture?

Oh, I memorized Phillippians 4:8 when I was about age eleven. Whatsoever is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report….think on these things. But….

Thinking good thoughts is different than plastering on some fake face, wishfully thinking our smiles are inauthentic leverage we can use for God to bless us.

Jesus was authentic in his relationships and emotions, honest about who He was as God, but also as a human.

He came and didn’t demand some bubbly act, religious head nodding, fake pretending that everything is always great in our life. He identify with the broken, recognized the cross He promised we would also have to bare if we are His disciples, was associated with suffering.

Much of my childhood I tried to force an inauthentic smile on a corpes internally desperate and hurting. I assumed Jesus would like me better, people would find it more accepting, and fake kindness might turn my heartache upside-down and bless the world around me.

I. was. wrong.

Anything inauthentic eventually damages others, but most of all, it paralizes the one pretending.

Jesus loves, cares for, and healed the sick. He appreciates the genuineness of our hearts more than the performances of “happy”, “good”, or “well-behaved people”.

Jesus wept, ached, prayed for & expressed anger as He saw the Father doing. Jesus is not intimidated, turned away, repulsed, or afraid of the sincerity of our hearts, or our genuineness as we talk to God with every strong emotion.

If Jesus wept (John 11:35) God grieves (Psalms 78:40), the Lord hates the wicked and the one who does violence (Psalms 11:5) and God described himself as “jealous” (Exodus 20:5) shouldn’t we climb down from propped up performances, shed our plastic smiles and express with authentic honesty, the transparent reality of our hearts, with God and those around us?

“No one is perfect, except for Jesus”….I tell my children frequently. God isn’t afraid of our frowns, tears, disappointments, hurt, or rejection. He embraces the fullness of our feelings and modeled walking through tough emotions all throughout Scripture.

Isn’t it time we stop labeling all negative emotions as “bad”, transform the image of Christians from people with fake plastic smiles to genuine, grace-beggers, embracing transparent relationship with God and other people?

Let’s not forget, God spins that earth on its axis. He can handle big feelings and is sovereign over everything….

Even over our negative emotions.