Finding God in our Feelings
Finding God in Our Feelings: Embracing Joy
May 29, 2022 • Pastor Tammy Long • Habakkuk 3:17–19, Psalm 16:11, Psalm 5:11
“Over the past five weeks, we have been unpacking some very challenging emotions and seeking God in the midst of “Finding God in Our Feelings.” (1) We started with a call to be honest about our emotions and feelings. We looked at David’s practice as he acknowledged them, took those emotions/feelings to God sooner rather than later, trusted that God heard and would respond, and drew closer to God through feelings. (2) We then unpacked shame and guilt in Tamar’s story in Genesis to face our own shame and guilt in experiences and feelings we keep hidden. We find God in our shame and guilt as we step into God’s light seeing ourselves the way God sees us as forgiven, deeply loved, free from false narratives, and precious in God’s sight. (3) We then looked at grief in the account of Hannah in 1 Samuel and the various types of grief and loss we face in life. With Jesus walking with us every step, we find God in grief and loss in the death of letting go or something ending in its burial of darkness, disorientation and pain, but then followed by the resurrection of healing and life on the other side of our loss. (4) The following week, we then looked at the iceberg of anger and those feelings that lie under the surface, but manifest as anger, such as frustration, insecurity, and jealousy. Anger is often the result of unmet expectation or desires. Finding God in our feelings of anger involves looking beneath the surface to fulfill our deepest desires. Humans disappoint, but only God can fulfill those deepest desires. (5) Last week, we looked at the feeling of loneliness. We were meant to be in relationship with God and others in connected community. We meet God in loneliness by connecting with God and letting God fill our deepest desires, growing together in building intentional relationships with others, and changing the world with others through service. This message concludes our series, “Finding God in our Feelings.” by embracing, enjoying, and rejoicing in the joy of the Lord…”
Finding God in Our Feelings: Facing Loneliness
May 22, 2022 • Pastor Tammy Long • Genesis 2:18, Psalm 142
In this message in our series Finding God in Our Feelings, we are looking at the feeling of loneliness. Even before the pandemic, loneliness had become a health crisis. In 2018, the U.K. elected the country's first Minister of Loneliness. The U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy stated that the U.S. was experiencing an epidemic of loneliness in our social interactions, since "efficiency and convenient relationships" that are much less satisfying have edged out time -consuming real relationships. A study by the Kaiser Family Foundation in 2018 concluded that one in five Americans said they always or often feel lonely or socially isolated. This epidemic of loneliness impacts all ages. We may think about people over 60 and living alone; a Pew Research Study reported 43% of this population reported feeling lonely before COVID. Another survey shows that those aged 18-22 had the highest loneliness scores. People are more connected through social media and computers, yet loneliness continues to rise. Among digitally connected teens and young adults, loneliness nearly doubled between 2012 and 2018 with the explosion in social media use. Loneliness impacts not only our feelings and emotions, but also our mental and physical health. Loneliness has been found to increase the risk of anxiety, depression, substance abuse, heart disease, cancer, stroke, obesity, hypertension, dementia, and premature death from weakening our immune system. We can be impacted by the risk associated with loneliness even if we are not aware that our feeling is actual loneliness. Loneliness is not specific to age, gender, ethnicity, geography, or century; loneliness is all around us, and it is not new. It is not good for humanity to be alone. Responding to loneliness begins with recognizing the feelings of loneliness and responding to loneliness in us and around us by finding God in our feelings of loneliness.
Finding God in our Feelings: Facing Anger & What lies beneath
May 15, 2022 • Pastor Tammy Long • Ephesians 4:26–29, James 1:19–22
“We continue our journey on the sermon series of “Finding God In Our Feelings.” We are continuing together this journey toward mental, emotional, spiritual and physical health and wellness. In this journey towards wholeness, God transforms us into new creations in the likeness of Jesus. We are looking at ourselves to become more self-aware in ways we may not be accustomed or even want to. As is true with any growth, there are growing pains and challenges we face to get to where God is leading us. God is on this journey with us; we recognize God in the midst and find God in fresh and deeper ways as we unpack our feelings. God meets us right there, hears us, comforts us, and responds to whatever we may be feeling. In this message, we are going to look at the hard emotion of human anger and finding God through our feelings of anger...”
Finding God in Our Feelings: Good Grief
May 8, 2022 • Pastor Tammy Long • 1 Samuel 1:1–20
Happy Mother’s Day, as we celebrate every woman today, whether you are a mother or are remembering your own mother. This day can be bittersweet and stir up a lot of memories and emotions. We can experience a myriad of feelings, including gratitude, loss, joy, pain, regret, and hope, even a co-mingling of feelings on this day. The New York Times recently headlined the following article: “America’s Mothers Are in Crisis: Is Anyone Listening to Them?”; other headlines have heralded similar themes. According to one study, almost 70% of mothers say that worry and stress have damaged their health. Even if you aren’t a mother raising children now, we can see the toil and have concerns for our friends, our daughters, our sisters, and our wives. Sometimes our feelings around being a mother or a woman are fanned by false narratives from an idealized image around motherhood that simply isn’t true. Being a mother is very hard work that comes with all kinds of struggles, trials, disappointments, and pain. It doesn’t always work out the way we want it to in the end. This message will unpack God’s Word around Facing Grief and Finding God. We face all kinds of grief in our daily lives, not just grief from the death of a loved one. Grief hurts, and it can last long. But God is there; God wants to comfort, lead, and guide us through “good grief.” Let’s go to God’s Word and explore the story of Hannah, one mother who faced grief and found God in her feelings...
Finding God in our Feelings: Facing Shame
May 1, 2022 • Pastor Tammy Long • Genesis 38
"We look forward to this summer’s blockbuster movies, particularly with heroes fighting for good. We love heroes who confront and vanquish evil, face darkness whatever that darkness may be, and have courage to persevere and live into their mission and destiny. We also are inspired by news of regular people doing courageous things, like standing in the gap for someone or going the extra mile, sometimes at personal sacrifice to face a challenge, address an evil or injustice, and live into the heroic lives God intends for each of us. Like the heroes of our stories and even real-life heroes, we also must face the darkness that can invade our lives, especially when that darkness is within. Darkness within, if left unaddressed, can lead to lives of quiet desperation, depression, and defeat, robbing us from living fully into our God designed destiny. As we look at challenging feelings, we have to be willing to go within and face areas of pain and darkness. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, God partners with us, taps our inner hero, and invites us to be strong and courageous. In this message, we are going to learn from a Bible hero, Tamar. She had to navigate through dark shadows to live into her purpose and calling; Tamar had the courage to face the darkness and live into the calling God had for her..."
Finding God In Our Feelings
April 24, 2022 • Pastor Tammy Long • Psalm 18:6, Psalm 27:7–8
"The celebration of Resurrection Sunday stayed with many of us all week. However, life rushes in: distresses and challenges of the day to day do not disappear. We are flooded with all kinds of feelings and realities during the week that we have to navigate. Some of us are in hard seasons. For most of us, life is neither all good nor all bad. Often great and wonderful things as well as challenging and painful things happen at the same time. How do we live into the Resurrection and victory of our Lord, Jesus Christ, when the hard and painful things in our lives cause us to feel the opposite, especially when our hearts may be crying out. How do we feel about our feelings and emotions? Looking at the illustration of King David, writer of many psalms, we have feelings and emotions, as made in the image of God, and manifested by the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ...."