Epidemic of Emotional Outbursts; For audio podcast PPN
Truth of the Spirit with host Patti Brunner addresses the Epidemic of Emotional Outbursts. The epidemic of emotional outbursts has caused violence in our streets and vile statements in our media, especially social media. The current political arenas appear out of control due to the raging emotions. People are affected by twisted truth and falsely believe that ‘outburst’ is the answer that will give them resolution and peace. Truth of the Spirit offers a calming approach of releasing emotions to God. During turbulent times we need solid foundations to stand firm against the flood of emotional outbursts. We need the solid teachings of Jesus.
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There is an epidemic of emotional outburst in our times, indeed even in our streets, because people have twisted truth and falsely believe that ‘outburst’ is the answer that will give them resolution and peace. When very small children do this we call it a “tantrum”. Outbursts often express wants rather than needs. Tantrums cry out for “our will be done” instead of “Thy will be done.” Truly, there is within many a feeling that needs a release. Please, pour out your hearts to the Lord! Please, release emotions to God, your Creator! And God Almighty shall help you find not only a right order to your emotions but solutions to bring peace into your lives and your communities. Emotional outbursts–think of a cloud outburst of rain. Rivers flow and sometimes ‘flood’ when too much flows at once. Certainly flooding has its benefits, it nourishes the land, it removes blocks to the flows but it can also rip the buildings away whose foundations are not solid. During turbulent times we need solid foundations to stand firm against the flood of emotional outbursts. We need the solid teachings of Jesus.
Welcome to Truth of the Spirit. Today’s episode addresses the Epidemic of Emotional Outbursts. This epidemic has taken place in the streets of violence and in political beliefs arenas. Today it is causing division and destruction and in the past has even caused wars.
There are some who battle their emotions due to physical causes. Medical treatment is generally a gift from God. All things can work for good for those called by the Lord. No forgiveness is required for the actions of a pure heart. Often people undergo various therapies with the use of chemical medicines or mental counseling. These can be helpful. What is not helpful is when the choice to ‘self-medicate’ with drugs, alcohol or by pushing their emotions on others in anger or defeat is made. Today’s topic is directed, however, to the false belief that ‘outburst’ is the answer that will give resolution and peace.
Those who are ruled only by emotion are easily affected by the evil one. You must know what you know and trust in the goodness of the Lord. Blessed are those who believed but did not see. If you were perfect in all actions, you wouldn’t need God. Such perfection does not exist in this world. In the fullness of the kingdom of God, compassion would have prevented both the offending actions and the offending words. Do not allow this lack of perfection to fester in your hearts. God’s love reaches out to comfort the sorrowful and the disappointed. His love talks to your heart — know that willing hearts please Him. When there are irritations in life look upon the situation with the compassionate heart and all pain will melt away. When anger flares, the emotion is rooted in pride. The evil one constantly prowls for the prideful servant. Anger does not bring healing. Do those who feel helpless call out for the Lord’s help? Or do they get angry because their way has failed in some way? Helplessness can be a humbling experience.
The darkness of the soul shadows the heart with lies. The hearts accept lies when self is served or when pain has broken the bond of love. One day soon the hearts shall see and know truth, in and with God’s love. Until that day, the Lord shall continue to send the members of His Body to one another and to the world to show hope and to give healing and peace. When the desert is dry for a long time the ground becomes very hard. Even a flood runs off—but the steady drizzle softens the ground. When the desert blooms it is clear that the life giving water has been found.
The thoughts of your heart can betray emotion of one who is stuck in the willfulness of self. God’s plan is present in all that occurs around you and all that flows within you. Listen with your heart and you will find freedom. Freedom has always come with a price. Jesus has paid it. Yet freedom must be treasured. It must not be sold back nor be given away for fleeting moments of fame or pleasure…or emotional outburst. Trials allow you to contemplate both God’s love and the freedom you have been given to make choices in your life. God’s plan for His people includes His plan for you. Yet obedience is required.
There is a story of an emotional outburst that escalated in the Gospel of Luke Chapter 4. Jesus had just opened the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah and read the verses, ““The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, 19 and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.” 20 Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. 21 He said to them, “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 And all spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.” But then, as they considered the background of Jesus, they started rejecting his truthful words because they were beyond their own desires and beliefs. As Jesus continued to share the truth of how God had blessed foreigners with miracles they became furious. “29 They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong. 30 But he passed through the midst of them and went away.” This emotional mob was ready and willing to take out their anger on the most perfect person of all time who was just speaking the truth and doing what he was called to do.
There is another story of an emotional outburst in the Gospel of John chapter 8. Witnesses to a legal injustice of adultery were led by scribes and Pharisees who had the ulterior motives of humiliating Jesus. They incited a mob who then brought the woman before Jesus for judgment and stoning. John 8:6b “Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger.” The leaders did not want this mob to cool down. “7 when they continued asking Jesus, he straightened up and said to them, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 And in response, they went away one by one, beginning with the elders. So he was left alone with the woman before him.”
When you are the person in pain –whether from physical, emotional or spiritual– the answer is written in the scripture, “10 Then Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She replied, “No one, sir.” Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, [and] from now on do not sin any more.”
The Lord your God came to save you from sin and this is the first and foremost act of healing. All else can be tolerated for the kingdom’s benefit. Even so, the Lord also desires joy, peace and happiness in this life in order to show the promise to be fulfilled in the next. When God created mankind there was perfection in the ability to think and reason and to “feel”. Sin has caused damage in these areas but it is not irreparable; it is not unrepairable. All things are possible when people surrender to the Perfect Will of the Divine Father.
Suffering brings no delight, yet suffering with offering is tolerable. Follow the advice of Fr. Philip Scott: “Say yes to what God has allowed and not let it go to waste but offer it up for souls.” He says, “There is no growth without moments of trial of darkness and anxiety without understanding and we are called to trust that eventually God will call it to an end. Allow the trial to last according to God’s will to prepare the soul for eternity.” Fr. Philip continued, “Suffering in of itself is evil. Yet, somehow, Jesus can use suffering for his purposes. Hope says, ‘this too will pass’. It comes from a faith life faithful to prayer.” Take heart! Rejoice! Find joy in the suffering –this is how evil is overcome. Not that sins and suffering is good—but that the endurance without turning to the evil one for relief answers the Father with trust.
Overcoming a bitter root requires surrender to God. Lashing out in resentment is an act of pride as is jealousy. InI Samuel Chapter 18, 6-10: King Saul was jealous of his servant David because of David’s gifts and favor from God including overcoming their enemy Goliath. “Saul kept a jealous eye on David. The next day an evil spirit from God rushed upon Saul, and he raged in his house.” In bitter jealousy and emotional rage he wanted to kill David. Bitterness sometimes comes as a weed among the grain. This bitterness if left alone would be a barrier to all that God plans to do with you. Bitterness chokes the heart but sweetness and the milk of human kindness added is the formula for hot chocolate. King Saul was talked into accepting David by his kind son Jonathan because it was good for his kingdom, thus David returned and continued to serve Saul as before. Doing for others is a great way to take the focus off the needs of self, especially when that focus is off centered and skewed and detrimentally obsessive. Sacrifice of self brings hope. Hope brings faith; faith manifests the love that called upon sacrifice to show the Way. Acts of love bring joy. Joy brings healing. Instead, King Saul’s selfishness reverted to jealous bitterness.
Do not fret when infirmity or weakness appears to have the upper hand. It is all in the hand of the Lord. What is allowed is thus available to bring the need to the fore front thus a greater good can be available to those who cry out in their need to God. All people make mistakes. It is a part of a learning process. Learning by failures from time to time also brings more appreciation when things are done correctly and for proper motive. Success at large and small things brings satisfaction of a job well done or an accomplishment achieved. The problem lies with having regret for mistakes made without repentance. When a mistake is sinful, repentance allows not only for sorrow in doing some action or failure to take action but then a desire to shift your choices to avoid similar mistakes. Repentance and regret seem to be the same but the major difference is that with regret there is no change made to behavior to avoid similar mistakes. Regret only poisons the mind through memory of the failure. Repentance is a choice. Regret is a strong emotion. A mistake is much more easily overcome; mistakes are more easily forgiven especially when admitted. Jesus sacrificed his life on the cross to bring peace to those tormented by regret. Surrender of the regret allows the healing to take place, then grace overcomes the regret and peace takes its place in your heart.
In her 2nd message to the world, Blessed Mother Mary, Our Lady in Akita said, “Many men in this world afflict the Lord. I desire souls to console Him to soften the anger of the Heavenly Father. I wish, with My Son, for souls who will repair, by their suffering and their poverty, for the sinners and ingrates.” “In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind. With My Son, I have intervened so many times to appease the wrath of the Father. I have prevented the coming of calamities by offering Him the sufferings of the Son on the Cross, His Precious Blood, and beloved souls who console Him and form a cohort of victim souls.” She said, “Prayer, penance, and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father’s anger.” Don’t let the opportunity for prayer, penance, and courageous sacrifices, even small ones, go to waste! The Church has set a World Day of Peace and honor of the Blessed Mother. It is scheduled at the first day of the calendar, January 1, to show the importance of the fresh beginning with peace in your heart. It follows the liturgical season of peace, the Christmas season, when the Prince of Peace was born into the world.
As we consider the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, the Church has been built in this way: understanding, study by the intellect, experience by the emotion and senses. There is nothing that brings home the reality of life and death like the death of a close family member or friend, or even the death of someone with whom you can closely identify. Grief is an emotion that soothes the heart as loss is experienced. It allows recall of the life of a beloved. In the natural, when you lose something valuable you search for it until it is found—and, Scripture tells us, you call your neighbors in to celebrate the finding. In the loss of a person you call your neighbors in to mourn the loss with you. An emotional outburst can thus trigger a social response of others to comfort you. But, when emotional outburst causes others to have an emotional outburst causing a flood of emotion, where is the healing? For healing, pour out your hearts to the Lord! Release your emotions to Jesus! And Jesus shall help you find not only a right order to your emotions but solutions to bring peace into your lives and your communities.
“Fear Not!” is the cry of the angels. Indeed, as you turn your face to the Lord, “Fear not!” Fear not the intensity of the emotion of love. Fear not the fiery dart of the enemy who hates rather than loves. Fear not the workings of the Holy Spirit. Continue to listen for the gentle whisper of the Spirit. Continue to strive for holiness. The Kingdom of God will come into its fullness and when it does the lambs will be gathered into the ‘Promised Land’. Fear not so that you are open to trust in God’s Goodness. It is indeed the Father’s will that His people on earth be whole: physically, spiritually, emotionally, lovingly. The wholeness of self can only be attained when the Holy Spirit fills a person with God’s grace. But His people cannot be full of His grace when they are full of sin-or full of the ‘world’. Jesus washes away the sin of the world by the power of his blood. Rejoice! The kingdom comes on earth as it is in heaven. Rejoice!
Those people who are sick need a ‘doctor’. Those who have impaired vision need an optometrist or an ophthalmologist. Those who are blind need cornea transplants. Those who are burned need new skin. Those who are broken need to be repaired. The tears of past choices are washed away by the Blood of the Lamb of God. Forever shall He reign; forever shall the King of Glory come. The fear that envelops the world is the fear of losing control: of life, of liberty, of health, of peace, of finances, of relationships, of life itself as manifested daily. Do not fear “losing control”! When you surrender your life to God you freely place your heart, your choice in His hands where the Great I Am, who loves and knows what is best for you, puts you on the pathway to life. When you accept the Will of the Father, even difficulties can be embraced for a season. When you step out in faith, the world can be changed by your own obedience to the Will of the Father. So when you hear ‘Fear Not’, remember that these are words to live by. Lives will be saved as you choose obedience to the Will of the Father. Those who are suffering—place your Trust in Jesus. He is the Healer. He can bring relief to the suffering and healing to the sick.
Let’s pray for relief from Emotional Outburst:
“My Jesus, comfort us! Release us from all distress! Allow the burdens of the day to be lifted from us that we might see the beauty that surrounds us. Free us from our prejudices and judgments that we might recognize your Presence in all that we greet.
“Come Holy Spirit; fill us with your compassionate love. Open our hearts and our minds to the fullness of your kingdom. Deliver us from the daily trials and tribulations that blind us from your piercing love. Dwell in our hearts; grant us wisdom and understanding. Free us from the effect of sin. Repair our emotions, restore our health; grant to us the joy of hope and the peace of faith.
“Come Lord Jesus. We invite You into our day, into our workplace, into our relationships, into our homes, into our rest. We surrender to You our lives. We surrender to You our will. We surrender to You our problems. We surrender to You every line in the sand that burdens us. We welcome the will of the Father and stand firm on the path of righteousness. Guide us this day to follow You.
“Come Holy Spirit, be always at our side, for as You abide in us so, too, will our sweet Savior and our Loving Father.
“In Christ we pray. Amen.”
You have been listening to Truth of the Spirit. I’m your host Patti Brunner. We encourage you to subscribe and to keep listening, turning towards the Lord! Then come back for more. With the Holy Spirit there’s always more! Amen.
