Five Illustrations to Better Understand Emotions
Sometimes Christ-followers find it hard to define, describe, and understand emotions. Certainly this has been the case in all the years of counseling ministry. Christians struggle to understand their emotions, much less define them. This article helps you understand briefly the definition of emotions, and provides five illustrations to better understand emotions.
Defining Emotions
An emotion is the God-given capacity of a whole-bodied response to our interpretation of our situation. Our emotions function as a response to what we think, what we want, and what we love. You could understand them as gauges or indicators that reflect what we value, our priorities, what we think, and how we perceive something. In one sense, as we feel emotional, they give the heart a voice and express, as just mentioned, a response to what we value, prioritize, think, and perceive in a specific situation. As such, emotions influence our bodies (physiological response), our behavior, our motives, and our feelings. Notice the diagram below:
In a given situation, as individuals made in the image of God, we interpret our situation. As part of that interpretation, we think, desire, and love (which ultimately has to do with what motivates us as love of Christ/others or love of self). The response to that interpretation of our situation begins in the inner man and includes more thinking, stronger affections, all types of emotions, and an attitudinal response. The outer man response includes physiological changes in our bodies (such as increased heart rate, sweaty palms, etc.), what we say, and what we do.
The diagram above would reflect a snapshot of what is going on in a person’s situation, inner man, and outer man at any one particular moment.
Five Illustrations to Better Understand or Explain Emotions
In my counseling practice, I often use the following five illustrations to help individuals better understand or explain their emotions.
A Gauge on a Dashboard
Similar to warning lights on a vehicle’s dashboard, our emotions highlight to us that something is going on inside of our interpretation of a situation. As we experience a particular emotion, we can immediately apply the snapshot diagram above to determine what is going on inside of us. The emotion highlights the significance of the interpretation of our situation. At this point, we can begin to evaluate or determine what is happening around us and in us.
However, notice in the personal pictures below of a particular vehicle that I moved for someone. If you look closely, you see two different warning lights on. What else do you notice in the two pictures?
In this particular person’s vehicle, the person put black electric tape over a warning light. Rather than doing something about the warning and evaluating it, the person simply covered it up, which means the issue will remain unresolved and the issue will become more serious over time. Ignoring our emotions only produces more inherent difficulties in the future.
A Golf Ball
As you can see in the picture above, this golf ball rests on my office desk. There are at least four ways we can exert force on this golf ball to get it moving. I can simply touch it to make it move, I can slap it, I can throw it, or I can hit it with a club. In all four of those ways, the ball will begin to move.
In many ways, emotion serves the same way. Our emotion is the God-given capacity of a whole-bodied response to our interpretation of our situation. It can be similar to that ball. It can be just the touch we need to get us rolling toward a God-honoring response, or it can motivate us in stronger ways. The stronger and longer the emotion motivates us, often to the same degree, it moves us off of a godly response.
Turning On an Engine
In a vehicle, the key, battery, and starter all function together to start a car. In a normal vehicle with a good-running engine, the starter is engaged only for a brief moment and then the engine takes over. It can run for hours, purring as it functions normally. In order for it to work as it was built to work though, the starter must be engaged. The starter must do its part. The engine will never run the way it was meant to run unless the starter gets it going.
What happens though when an engine is running and you try to start it again? It makes all kinds of racket and can hurt the starter. What if the starter engages and then fails to disengage? Again, all kinds of trouble.
Emotion functions similarly for us. Emotion gets the engine of moving towards a God-honoring response going. It engages the spiritual engine which should get us toward Christlikeness. When emotion fails to disengage or continuously reengages the engine of towards-a-God-honoring-response, emotion can hinder the engine of towards-a-God-honoring-response from doing what it needs to do or getting where it needs to go. However, used properly, emotion functions quite well in the overall engine of towards-a-God-honoring-response.
Time Flying Unnoticed
Have you ever made the remark, “Where has the time gone? It seems to have flown by!”
This is true often when we are focused on a particular task, relaxing with family, playing a game, or looking at social media. Last you knew, it was 8:00 am and now it is nearly noon. Where did the time go?
Although we were not watching our watches or the clock, the failure to notice the time did not stop the time from continuing. In fact, as observed in the picture above, the clock registered the time even when the man in the picture was not paying attention to it. See the next picture below, as well, where we can tell it is 2:36 pm. Try to catch this with me: even though we are not paying attention to the time, that does not mean that time quits.
We can apply this to our emotions, too. Even though we are often unaware of our interpretation of our particular situations, the lack of awareness does not mean that we are not interpreting. In fact, in every situation, we think, we want, and we love. The combination of these interpretative skills (thinking, wanting, and loving) produce a response that includes emotion. Whereas, we may not have paid attention to this interpretive framework in us, we still nonetheless interpret.
Just as the time continues to click away, which is demonstrated by the picture captured in the moment of the shutter snap, the snapshot diagram above demonstrates that in any moment, whether we realize it or not, our emotions stem from active interpretation of our past and current circumstances.
Muscle Memory
The final example relates to muscle memory. In golf, we depend upon muscle memory when addressing the ball and making a shot or putt. In basketball, we depend upon muscle memory to shoot, dribble, and pass. In football, we depend upon muscle memory in tackling, handoffs, catches, and blocking. These are similar to many activities of life, which include typing, driving, and cooking.
Let me add emotions. When we have practiced a particular emotion over and over and over, we develop muscle memory for that emotion. In similar situations (and sometimes in not so similar), we move toward an emotion or emotional response without hardly any intentionality at all. The diagram above helps us evaluate what is going on “behind the scenes” as part of our muscle memory in a particular moment or situation.
Work toward Determining Your Emotions with Intentionality
As you consider your emotions and subsequent responses, let me encourage you to think through the snapshot above by applying it to your situation. These five illustrations should both help you understand and explain your personal emotions, as well as help others understand theirs as well. The goal in all of life – including our emotions – is to do everything to the glory of God.
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