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Power?

           so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Ephesian 3:17-19)

I’m not a “feelings” person. I’m more comfortable with ideas, words, and facts, but I suspect that most people base a lot of my life on feelings. Having not pulled off what I consider to be three miracles before breakfast means my day has been a complete waste of time unless I pull off something spectacular before bed. That might not be your criteria, but I suspect that few of us walk by faith as much as we do by sight, or by feel. We say we’re going to _____ and then, “Squirrel!” or “Bird!” or “Sprig of thyme that still has leaves!”[1]

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying feelings are bad and we should all become Vulcans. What I’m saying is that feelings are often narcissistic bullies that shove their way into our live and swallow up all our time, energy, and attention even if they and their cause are insignificant in our lives.

I haven’t thought about it this way before, but when today’s passage speaks of the “power…to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ…” it is implying that there is something, or multiple things that keep us from knowing. I suspect that one of those things is feelings. If feelings aren’t the issue in your life, chances are there is something else that may not be a bad servant in your life, but is a bad master. To be able to grasp the dimensions of God’s love, we need the capacity to experience and explore that love with our wills, our thoughts, our feelings, our bodies, our relationships, and our souls. That can’t happen if we allow one of those to dominate. We need to power to say “no”  to ourselves. That doesn’t mean we can’t tell God, “I’m not feeling the love.” It does mean that not feeling the love is no indication that there’s no love to be found. We just need to be willing to accept that our feelings (or other dominant power in our lives) aren’t necessarily the best indicator of reality.


[1] Explanation: I have harvested and dried some common thyme, and I’m trying to remove the leaves so I can store them. It’s not that my thyme plant is sick and I found one sprig with leaves.

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