I’m glad I’m sad

Sometimes I feel uncomfortable things.

Sometimes sad. Sometimes anxious, hurt, confused, rejected, or scared. Sometimes other difficult emotions.

And sometimes I choose to avoid those… Usually through numbing activities, like Facebook scrolling, YouTube surfing, Harry Potter marathons… etc.

Uncomfortable feelings are necessary.

They’re necessary because they offer contrast to comfortable feelings. And you can’t have one without the other.

“We cannot selectively numb emotions, when we numb the painful emotions, we also numb the positive ones.” (Brene Brown)

Uncomfortable feelings are evidence that I’m alive.

By that I mean that I’m fully experiencing the present. When I allow myself to feel pain, I’m also opening myself up to joy :)

I’m grateful for when I feel uncomfortable feelings…

Because it means that I’m not numbing. That I have courage to experience discomfort knowing I’ll be able to feel comfort again.

I think that same idea worked for Christ…

“…let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2)

I guess my recent HWN is that I’ve been grateful to endure the cross.

p.s. It was nice having my brother and sister-in-law and their daughters in town last weekend :)