Are emotions a barrier or gateway to wisdom? What breaks our hearts open to love, compassion and mercy? We will discuss these and other questions as we continue our series “Seeking Wisdom.” We’ve already taken a look at the wisdom of King Solomon and considered that his wisdom was a gift from God. Then we moved to the story of a dialogue between Jesus and Nicodemus where we recognized that wisdom was something that came to Nicodemus over the course of time. Last week, we discovered through the story of Mary ‘s devotion, relationship and love for Jesus that wisdom empowers us to live out God’s will, no matter the cost. Today we will identify how our emotions may lead us to insight and wisdom as we ponder the story of Joseph and his brothers. Join the conversation and be sure to scroll down below the video to Comment, Share and Like it.
This one is more difficult for me as I am sometimes just glad to be through the emotional experience and don’t want to meditate on it. However, I can certainly see the growth through pain when I do.
This one is hard for me, too. What occurs to me is that there are times when I set my immediate feelings aside so that I can think and pray, especially if some of these feelings are negative. This has pluses and minuses. In some ways it helps me to move through situations and make better decisions. On another level, sometimes I need to go back to those immediate feelings and let myself be cleansed of them by having them wash over me. Then I am open to other, deeper, less immediate, more godly feelings. Those new feelings can lead to calm, peace and wisdom. I am sorry if this does not make much sense to you. I do not know how to properly articulate these ideas.
Listening to this story I felt that I was Joseph and other times I have been Benjamin.
At times I believe my emotions was of angry, hurt, disappointment and revenge.
Which I act on in my thoughts and actions to others.
As they say there is two sides of a coin.
And I was at the times not emotionally mature to deal with the events that cause me
to act inappropriate.
I believe Joseph felt guilty of what he did to his brother. And sad of the lost time he could have had with Benjamin.
So if we have knowledge of the outcome, we could do things differently.
So that is when we find Wisdom.
Unfortunately I still not sure I have find it.
This is a hard lesson for me.