We need to die to self, rather than trying to drown out our emotions or kill our feelings. Dying to self is an interesting concept. It’s simple, painful, and makes no sense to most of the world, but dying to self means we’re willing to give up our entitlement to be comfortable. It means we’re willing to be uncomfortable for the good of others and the purposes of God. We’re not healing our life if we’re protecting ourselves from feeling the emotions buried deep inside. We’re infecting it with loneliness, isolation, and alienation. In order to heal, we must die to our most immediate desires and experience life as it is.

The Big Lie

Many are living the big lie that if we’re real Christians we should experience a real peace in all circumstances. The lie only serves to delay the pain that must be experienced as a gift from God. The gift of pain pierces through us, and we instantly know we have a problem to solve or a mystery to unravel. When someone we love dies, we have a problem to solve. We have to find a way to live without that person. We have to exist without their daily touch or frequent contact, encouragement, or nurturing. If we deny that pain, we don’t solve the problem. The claim of instant peace can lead us to constant and ongoing pain that won’t die until we feel it, express it, understand it, and resolve it. The big lie prevents us from healing. It moves us into superficiality and fake connection. Feeling our lives and the pain in them allows us to connect in authentic and intimate ways.

The Resurrection’s Impact On Feelings

The foundation of the Christian faith is the belief that Jesus actually existed, lived here on earth to show us how to live, then took upon Himself the penalty of our sins, died for them, was buried, and rose from the grave. It couldn’t be clearer that accepting Jesus as your Savior makes all the difference in the eternal world. But the fact that Jesus died on the cross for you and rose from the grave has a lot to do with how you live today and how you feel. You’re free to feel the emptiness, the fear, and the anger because you know you’ll survive and that in the end, all of these feelings will be resolved in the hands of God. So every day you can turn over to Him a little bit more than the day before. You can feel your life and experience it to the fullest.