Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth. For this month, I’ve been writing about Autism Awareness Month with the hopes of giving people a fresh perspective with seeing how I look at things as one who has Asperger’s and being married to someone who has it. Tonight, I’d like to cover the difficult topic of emotion.
I know someone who has asked why God made us with emotion and honestly, I can understand the question. They can seem to cause us a lot of trouble sometimes, but for many of us who are analytical, I realize we are overlooking the times that they bring us much joy. I am sure I’m not the only one who when I’m upset about something, everything seems down.
Still, He did, and we must say then that it is a good thing or else He would have made us differently. Now my wife will tell you that she’s the lone exception in this as that she is very expressive in her emotions. However, she will tell you as well that I can show emotion strongly, but I would say that I am one of the least emotional people that there is.
For myself, emotions are difficult to understand. I always want to know “Why do I feel X?” or “Why don’t I feel X?” For instance, if I am thinking about the nature of God I can ask “Why is this not leaving me in sheer awe?” Unfortunately, the tendency is to dwell on that problem instead of, say, thinking about how to understand the doctrine of immutability.
It is important to remember that we moderns have it backwards. We think you have the emotion first and then you do the act. There’s a simple way to see this is false. When the alarm goes off in the morning or if you just wake up naturally, just ask yourself if you really want to get out of bed or if you would prefer to sleep in still. While you could feel like sleeping in, you will get up and start moving and soon, you will feel like being active. Those who work out regularly know that when they’re heading to the gym, they don’t feel like working out, but once they get there and get into it, they suddenly do want to keep going.
What can we learn from this in relating to Aspies? This is an area we again need your help on and maybe we can help you in turn. We can help evaluate one another’s emotional responses to situation and see where the response is one that is warranted or not and if it really means anything or not or if one should just let it go. My wife likes to watch a lot of shows about people in real-life struggles and I often try to think about “Why do they feel X at that time?” It is not the same as saying it is invalid to feel that, but it is wondering why they do and seeking to come to an understanding. It could be a feeling I even have but just want to further understand.
This is especially relevant in our doubt culture, especially since a lot of Christians wrestle over doubting salvation and when they do, generally, the only evidence I see presented is that they have an emotion. Better handling of emotions will help us all in our Christian life and the Aspie you know will certainly appreciate it.
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