Bring It All

I believe a lot of Christians approach faith as an intellectual exercise. This may be particularly true of those in Reformed traditions where having correct theology and being able to defend our beliefs has been elevated to the capstone of life. Seminaries often feed into this perception and can lead pastors to intellectualize their preaching and teaching. Certainly we want pastors who can study and faithfully interpret Scripture, but correct theology is not necessarily life-transforming.

I know I have fallen into this trap quite often. Some of us have personality traits and family origins that are more prone to this. I value and pursue knowledge of many different subjects, Scripture included. At the same time, a lot of the Christian authors I’ve read have implied that emotions are meant to be ignored. “Just preach the truth to yourself and your emotions will fall into line.” There may be a kernel of truth to that, but I’ve rarely found it to be that clear cut. Part of the difficulty comes from not knowing what I’m feeling or why I feel that way to begin with. It’s hard to come up with relevant biblical truth if I don’t know what wounds or misconceptions need to be addressed. I’ve slowly learned that simply trying to suppress the troubling thoughts or feelings doesn’t really solve anything. They still live to fight another day. “Denying yourself” doesn’t mean ignoring what’s going on inside.

Jesus invited us, “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). But if we are trying to deny our burdens, we may not even realize that we are in need of rest. It was prophesied that Jesus would be “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief… Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” (Is. 53:3-4). He never said “What you are feeling is irrelevant, just trust Me,” but He did remind the disciples that suffering would not last forever.

Even the great apostle Paul wrote at different times, “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart” (Rom. 9:1), and “we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself” (2 Cor. 1:8). He didn’t downplay his difficulties, and he didn’t ask the churches to pray that he wouldn’t feel this way. He was able to say instead, “we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Rom. 5:3-5). He acknowledged the pain while still clinging to God in faith.

How then does this impact our approach to faith? First, we need to remember that we can bring our true selves to God. He doesn’t expect us to sanitize our thoughts and come with heads held high and smiles on our faces. He knows where we struggle even better than we know ourselves. We can drag our broken bodies and wounded hearts to Him at any and all times.

Second and very practically, rather than pursuing prayer and Bible reading as an academic exercise, sometimes (or perhaps often) we can take time to examine our hearts and see what things are currently causing anxiety, sorrow, anger, and uncertainty. Then we can go to God with whatever our greatest concerns are right now. I think we often miss out on experiencing God’s love and grace because we don’t actually take all our burdens to Him.

The practice of self-examination goes back many centuries, and is not some kind of new age mysticism. Scripture tells us to examine ourselves preceding communion (1 Cor. 11:28), but it’s certainly not limited to that time or to issues of sin. Jesus said, “But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life” (Luke 21:34a emphasis added). This kind of self-awareness is not selfish, but living humbly and authentically before our Lord and Savior. Since Jesus welcomed the little children with their unhindered and vibrant emotions (Matt. 19:14), how could He not embrace all of us the same way?

“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and whoever comes to Me I will never cast out” (John 6:37).

“If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink” (John 7:37).

(These thoughts have been greatly influenced by things I’ve heard and read recently from Steve Cuss, Alasdair Groves, and Chuck DeGroat.)

© 2025 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Worship in Truth

Once in a while in a worship service I have the thought, “Why am I singing this song? It’s the opposite of what I feel right now.” One song that I often have a hard time singing is “He Has Made Me Glad.” I realize that feelings aren’t everything and that there are many reasons to have joy in Christ even when we don’t feel glad, but you have to admit that many songs draw on emotional imagery and ideas to convey their message. So I may end up feeling like a hypocrite for singing words that don’t describe me at that particular time. (I’m assuming that the selected songs have correct theology.) I think there are several truths to consider.

1) Worship is commanded.

“Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; tremble before Him, all the earth!” (Psalm 96:9 ESV). “Sing praises to the Lord, O you His saints, and give thanks to His holy name” (Psalm 30:4). “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice” (Philippians 4:4).

The biblical authors never said, “Worship if you feel like it.” However, it should be noted that worship is ascribing worth to God, which means recognizing and communicating what is true about God. It is not necessarily an emotional display or an expression of how we might feel at a given moment. Worship is about God, not us.

2) It’s not always appropriate to sing.

“By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion… How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” (Psalm 137:1, 4).

In the context of this verse, weeping was more an act of worship than singing would have been. The Israelites remembered the Promised Land, and no doubt they also remembered their own sins that brought them into captivity in Babylon.

3) Worship is more than singing.

“…When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up” (1 Corinthians 14:26). “…present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1).

Worship can take many different forms, and I think churches obscure the truth when they label the musical portion of a service as “worship” and they have “worship teams” whose duty is to lead the music. Prayer, giving, and receiving biblical teaching are all elements of worship.

4) We impact one another.

“…not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:25). “…addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart” (Ephesians 5:19).

As we gather together, some people are joyful, some are sorrowful, some may be eager to sing, others may yearn for prayer. We are to “bear one another’s burdens” (Galatians 6:2) and “rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15). At times that may take the form of singing words that reflect the experiences of someone else in order to remind all of us who God is and why we can find peace and joy in Him.

I have a bit of a problem with the statement from Kierkegaard that “God is the audience.” I understand that it is a necessary corrective of the idea that the congregation is the audience. However, I think it can lead people to think that worship is an act that we have to perform for God’s benefit. The fact is that God does not need our worship, though He deserves it, and we don’t have to invite Him to come to the performance. And as the above Scriptures say, we are called to gather in corporate worship for the mutual benefit that it brings to all of us. God should be the focus of all worship, because He alone is worthy, but as His Body we need one another as well. We need the frequent reminders of truths that are best communicated through worshiping together.

So it may often be that we sing songs that are theologically true even though they may not feel true on a particular day. Hopefully those who are selecting music and Scripture readings are considerate of the wide variety of experiences and emotions that are represented in a congregation from week to week. The psalmists certainly acknowledged both the ups and downs of life, and we should do the same. God is present in the valleys as well as on the mountains, and so we can worship Him wherever we may be in life.

“The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him” (John 4:23).

© 2017 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. 

When Life Is Hard

I ran across this quote a few weeks ago and have continued to think about it:

“‘Don’t apologize for your tears,’ he said. ‘Don’t ever apologize for your tears,’ he repeated with added fervor. ‘They reveal the feminine nature of God, a side that is soft, nurturing, deeply passionate, and caring. We need to see more of that side of God. Thank you for being brave enough to share it with me here today’” (Thrashing About with God, Mandy Steward, 186).

It made me think of the death of Lazarus as recorded in John 11, and that short verse “Jesus wept” (11:35). I’ve always pictured Jesus with a few tears sliding down His cheeks “weeping quietly,” as authors like to say. But looking back at verse 33, I’m not sure it was so sedate. “When Jesus saw [Mary] weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in His spirit and greatly troubled” (ESV). And in verse 38 He was “deeply moved again.” That doesn’t sound like a “dabbing at His eyes” sort of weeping. 

I think sometimes we tend to sanitize Jesus, never imagining that He could really experience the same intensity of emotions that we do. Didn’t His nose run or His face get red at times like this? Perhaps the reason verse 35 is so short is that Jesus was unable to speak through His tears at that moment. 

In his book When the Darkness Will Not Lift, John Piper states:

“One of the reasons God loved David so much was that he cried so much. ‘I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping’ (Ps. 6:6). ‘You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?’ (Ps. 56:8). Indeed they are! ‘Blessed are those who mourn’ (Matt. 5:4). It is a beautiful thing when a broken man genuinely cries out to God” (35).

We’ve done a disservice to God and to ourselves by creating a false stereotype. “Big girls don’t cry...” “Real men don’t cry...” Really? Was Jesus therefore immature or unmanly? There are events in this life that demand tears, as we have witnessed all too often lately. There are deep emotions and circumstances beyond our control. If Jesus, who was God incarnate, had reason to weep, how much more do we?

“Tears sum up everything gone wrong in this fallen world. Grief, frustration, pain, disappointment, loss, stress, tragedy, disaster, regret, mourning, depression, lament, brokenness, abandonment — all of it can be expressed through the universal language of tears” (Tony Reinke).

As one who struggles with depression, tears are all too familiar to me, but I’m trying to look at them a little differently. Tears were part of Jesus’ experience on earth because they are part of the human experience. It may not always be welcomed, but there is no shame in crying, and it can be a healthy expression of what is going on inside.

“Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15).

© Dawn Rutan 2016