I'm going to try and make this short...

just because it's sort of a simple idea and I don't have much to say about it. And no one likes reading long posts. But I did want to mention it. Monday night in anchor groups we were talking about faith being so much more than an "emotion" and how the church is so focused on getting you "emotionally wound up" when in reality, God/faith/worship/discipline is so much more than that. This was good for me to hear because I don't always "feel" like loving God. Sometimes you have to make a decision to do something even when you aren't in the mood. Then the next night at 1822 during worship I found myself...I don't want to say bitter...but...confused? I was listening to the music rise and rise and saw the band get more into the song as it built and I was brought back to this idea of emotion. I felt weird and almost like I was being tricked into a feeling. Shouldn't worship be so much more than an emotion created? Should our faith be guided by an emotion? And then a thought popped into my head...there is no emotion in religion. It is dead. But what IS full of emotion is a relationship. Emotion is the center of relationships, in fact. I am so grateful to say that I have a relationship with Jesus instead of a religion. And now I believe that I have a right to emotion and passion. I never want to over analyze worship again. I just hope that any feelings created in my faith walk have nothing to do with lighting, intense guitar strumming, etc. but only feelings which are created by God's presence. Eh, let me know what you think.