Being a Feeler...

There is no way to get around it really. If you are an F, then you just are. I spent much of life trying not to be that way - avoiding, hiding, etc. You get the picture. All my therapist friends would probably call it "emotionally constipated" (I do love that phrase!). But, alas, I am a feeler, and mostly I am very thankful for that.

However, being a feeler is hard. It can wear you out as much, if not more, than being "emotionally constipated". I really FEEL things - good and bad, and I often get overwhelmed with those emotions. Like my last post of being overwhelmed with emotions for the birth mother of my child. When my friends suffer, I FEEL it (though my husband might say I am not always as in tuned to his emotions :-)) I think it hits more when it is cold outside - I start thinking about all the homeless in my city and it hurts, I think about the woman and child who approached my car in the target parking lot yesterday asking for money and it hurts. I am bombarded with knowledge of child prostitution, women being exploited and sex traffic, radicals shooting and injuring the people who serve our country and killing children in the process and I really think I am going to vomit. IT HURTS. This world hurts.

As I was reading this morning, I was really struck by a sweet word from the Lord - I really felt it. Felt His promise to me, to us. It says this:

Psalm 10:
¹⁷ You, LORD, hear the desire of the afflicted;
you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,
¹⁸ defending the fatherless and the oppressed,
so that mere earthly mortals
will never again strike terror.

Hear those beautiful words - do you FEEL them? Ask the Lord to let you feel them: He hears our desires (spoken, not spoken, even those we don't even know we have), He encourages us (He has the perfect words to meet us right where we are), He listens (not just listens, but loves to commune with us, loves to hear our voices), He defends (thank you Jesus!)!

I long for this time, this time when terror will not strike again. When all darkness, oppression, death will cease and the Earth will be made perfect.