Spiritual Temperaments: The Emotional Type
From the Series—The Heart of Worship
April 26, 2002The May 7, 2001, cover article of Newsweek magazine, “God & the Brain: How We’re Wired For Spirituality,” offers a fascinating look into the connection between neurology and spirituality. Kenneth Woodward says, “Skeptics used to argue that anyone with half a brain should realize there is no God. Now scientists are telling us that one half of the brain, or a portion thereof, is ‘wired’ for religious experiences.” Several centuries ago, William Shakespeare put it poetic terms, “The brain is the soul’s fragile dwelling place.”
According to neurotheology, the human mind is wired for worship. Worshiping God is our deepest longing and highest calling. While I disagree with Deepak Chopra’s “theology,” his neurology is right on. “Your brain is hardwired to find God. That is what the lightening storm of the brain’s endless activity is all about. God for us is not a choice, but a necessity.” Carl Jung warned that if our natural inborn tendency to worship did not consummate in the worship of God, then our worship would be deflected to lesser objects and causes. In other words, if we don’t worship God, capital “G,” then we will worship gods, small “g.”
Right-Brain Worship
Last week’s evotional focused on left-brain worship. This week we cross the corpus callosum and explore right-brain worship. Let me pick up where we left off last week.
In the 1970s, Nobel-prize winner Roger Sperry pioneered split-brain research. He discovered that the right and left hemispheres of the brain serve very different functions. The left-brain is linear and logical. It is responsible for everything from mathematics to linguistics. The left-brain is the rational side of us. The right-brain is intuitive and creative. It is responsible for everything from humor to poetry. The right-brain is the emotional side of us.
When it comes to the Great Commandment, split-brain research has some profound implications. Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength.” Loving God with “all your mind” includes both hemispheres of the brain--the rational and emotional dimensions of who you are.
The Emotional Type
“Good feelings” don’t equal “good worship,” but our problem is not getting “too emotional.” To become like Christ is to feel more, not less. It’s to become more emotional, not less. It’s to become more passionate, not less.
John 11:35 says, “Jesus wept.” It’s the shortest verse in the New Testament, but it speaks volumes about Jesus. When Jesus saw Mary weeping, he was “deeply” moved. Jesus was not emotionally “monotone.” His feelings spanned the entire emotional spectrum.
In John 2, Jesus makes a whip, turns over tables, and single-handedly drives the moneychangers out of the Temple. John 2:17 says, “His disciples remembered that it is written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me’.” Zeal is emotional intensity. And according to John 2:17, Jesus was consumed by it. Dorothy Sayers said, “To do them justice, the people who crucified Jesus did not do so because He was a bore; quite the contrary, He was too dynamic to be safe. It has been left for later generations to muffle up that shattering personality and surround Him with an atmosphere of tedium. We have declawed the Lion of Judah and made Him a housecat for pale priests and pious old ladies.” To become like Christ is to be consumed by zeal.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” The word “enthusiasm” comes from two Greek words--en and Theos--which mean “in God.” The more we get into God and the more of God we get into us, the more enthusiastic we become. Christians ought to be the most passionate people on the planet. Romans 12:11 says, “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord.”
Soren Kierkegaard believed that boredom was the ultimate sin. C.S. Lewis said the same thing in different words. He said the Lord “finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures.” Technically speaking, we are “half-brained creatures.” Intellect without emotion isn’t enough. And Emotion without intellect isn’t enough. Proverbs 19:2 says, “It is not good to have zeal without knowledge.” We need both/and.
EQ
A few years ago, Daniel Goleman popularized the concept of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) with his book by that title. According to Goleman, “IQ contributes about 20 percent to the factors that determine life success, which leaves 80 percent to other factors.” Goleman labels the “other factors” emotional intelligence.
Dylan Evans defines emotional intelligence as “striking a balance between emotion and reason in which neither is completely in control. Emotionally intelligent people know when it is right to control their emotions and when it is right to be controlled by them.”
Jesus was EQ incarnate. John 2 used to create a sense of dissonance for me because it didn’t fit my “meek and mild” caricature of Jesus. There is no getting around the fact that Jesus was ticked off. But there’s nothing wrong with that. Before you click “delete,” take a look at Ephesians 4:26. Paul writes, “In your anger do not sin.” Anger is not necessarily sinful. In fact, not only is it wrong to get angry about the wrong thing, it’s wrong to not get angry about the right thing. Romans 12:8 says, “Hate what is evil.”
Aristotle said, “Anyone can become angry--that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way--that is not easy.” The moneychangers were worshipping the almighty dollar rather than the Almighty God. They had turned the Temple into a flea market. Jesus was angry with the right people, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and he did the right thing about it. He cleaned house. He said, “How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market.”
Dylan Evans says, “Ideally, we are neither completely rational nor completely emotional, but manage to strike the elegant balance between the two that we refer to as emotional intelligence.”
Jesus did just that. No one was more passionate or compassionate!
The Anatomy of Emotion
“Emotion” comes from the Latin verb motere which means “to move.” As Daniel Goleman observes, “All emotions are impulses to act.” God is the one who designed us with amazing emotional capacities. He wants to redeem us emotionally as well as spiritually. Dallas Willard says, “Feelings too must be renovated: old ones removed and new ones installed.”
We tend to underestimate the importance of emotion. “Affective Blindness” gives us a glimpse into what an emotionless existence would be like. Those who suffer from the condition are unable to gauge the emotional significance of anything. They cannot read facial expressions or weigh options. As a result, they are completely passive and indifferent. Life becomes an emotionless, meaningless existence. Emotion is one of God’s greatest gifts. And like every other gift, we’re called to be good stewards.
Memory is a function of emotion. We tend to recall good memories when we’re in a good mood and bad memories when we’re in a bad mood. Psychologists call it “mood congruent recall.” Spiritually speaking, worship is mood congruent recall. Nothing can change your mood like worship. Negative emotions evaporate. Positive emotions percolate. We are filled with gratitude as we focus on God’s goodness and greatness!
Attention is a function of emotion. When you’re “in love” or “ticked off,” you can’t think about anything else! The stronger the emotion the more focused you are. Someone has said the best time to learn to parachute is when you’re flying 300 miles per hour at 30,000 feet 3 minutes before jumping!
Decision-making is a function of emotion. Blaise Pascal said, “The heart has its reasons, which reason knows not.” Sometimes we need to listen to our “hearts.” As Douglas Yates observes, “People who are sensible about love are incapable of it.” God has wired our brains so that our emotional reaction always precedes our intellectual reaction by a split-second. It’s called “precognitive emotion.”
Even morality is a function of emotion. Dylan Evans says, “Emotions seem to underlie much, if not all, of our moral behavior. Without them we would not be capable of virtue.” He says, “Without moral sentiments to guide your moral reasoning you would only ever obey the letter of the law rather than the spirit.”
Catharsis
All worship is not equal. Your level of worship is directly proportional to your level of knowledge. The more you know the more you can worship! That’s why we need to “study to show ourselves approved” as II Timothy 2:15 says. Study is a stewardship issue.
In the same sense, your level of worship is directly proportional to your level of emotion. The deeper the love the deeper the feelings! Gary Thomas says, “I don’t celebrate God one-tenth as much as he deserves to be celebrated.” When the Ark of the Covenant was brought back to Jerusalem in II Samuel 6, it says the people were “celebrating with all their might before the Lord.”
Worship is cathartic. There is an emotional dimension to the expereince. We feel “joy unspeakable” and the “peace that passes understanding.”