Flipbooks

I N T R O D U C T I O N BY AMY BIRD The start of a new year can bring with it a renewed sense of hope. We hold anticipation and excite- ment for what lies ahead. Perhaps some dates are already circled on your calendar in delight: a gradu- ation, vacation, or milestone birthday. Somehow, a new year brings with it a sense of new beginning, of untapped potential, of something better than before. It can be easy to feel hopeful. But for some of us, it's not quite that simple. We've been hit hard by the trials of life and see no signs of relief coming any time soon. Considering the prospect of hope is just too risky. What if we're let down again? Wherever you find yourself on this spectrum, you're feeling some kind of emotion. That's because when God made us in His image, He made us to have emotions just like He does. Our fall into sin brings us emotions foreign to God, like fear and guilt. And our emotions can change based on a circumstance, mood, or relationship. We might feel happy, sad, afraid, angry, surprised, or loved, and many, many other feelings! Talking about emotions can sometimes make us feel uncomfortable (another emotion). Emotions can feel unpredictable. We don't trust them or always know what to do with them. Big emotions can feel out of control. Small emotions can seem like a deficiency. But here we are, embodied crea- tures of our good Creator, living each moment of each day with the experience of emotions. God cares so much about our experience as emo- tional creatures that the Bible shares the array of emotions Jesus experienced as He walked the earth. Next time you read the Gospels, consider what emo- tions Jesus is feeling. He is angered by the sellers in the temple. He feels loved as the woman washes His feet with perfume. He feels lonely when His disci- ples don't stay awake with Him to pray. Feeling emo- tions is part of what made Jesus human. And in His death and resurrection, Jesus redeems for us all of life, including our emotions. No doubt about it, the assurance of our faith is founded in the historical reality of Jesus' saving work that we receive through baptismal grace. But the expression of our faith is lived out through our emotions. How we feel as we live out our faith can serve as signposts informing us of the Spirit's work of pruning and growing us in His fruits. And as we consider the emotions of other people, we learn how to better serve our neighbor, offering comfort, care, and support. Throughout this issue of Lutheran Life, we'll explore emotions such as joy, peace, sadness, grief, stress, anxiety, and compassion. We'll consider both how we experience these emotions and how they can point us to who God is. And as we do, no matter the emotion or article, I pray you can feel a sense of hope; that your joy and peace would be anchored in your hope in Jesus; that your suffering and sorrow would produce in you endurance, character, and hope that will not put you to shame. Because hope in Jesus is something we can count on. There's no risk involved. It's for you—both to know and to feel. • Heidi Goehmann, Finding Hope: From Brokenness to Restoration (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2021), p. 160. As we get started, consider these questions from Finding Hope: From Brokenness to Restoration by Heidi Goehmann: • What are some of the most com- plex emotions you have experi- enced in life? • How do you most often deal with your emotions? What does it look like when you give your emo- tions space as informants but not leaders in your life? • How does God, the Creator of emotions, help us be informed by our emotions but not led by them? Lutheran Life 3

• Cover