“No, no! Jesus didn’t experience anxiety!” we might say. I think this is a reaction to quickly judging emotions as bad and untrustworthy. Consider Christ’s prayer in the garden, as he neared death. We read quite disturbing words from Luke: “And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground”.
I'm no etymologist, but words fascinate me. Kardia, in many of its uses, has captivated my attention for a long time. As a Bible student, kardia appears multiple times as the Greek word for heart.
Not the organ that pumps blood through your body. Kardia is the figurative core of your being. It is the seat and center of human life, emotion, volitional will. It is the "causative source of one's psychological life in its various aspects." All that to say, your heart is a huge deal and deserves attention and care!
A positive pregnancy test. Immediately, my heart swelled, and my thoughts swirled: How fortunate are we to be pregnant a second time?! Are you a boy or a girl? What will life be like with two young children? I can’t wait to meet you. I love you. Logic tells us not to get attached until it’s “safe.” Statistics show us that many pregnancies end in the first trimester. My brain tried to protect my heart, but my heart attached anyway.
The mention of sex or pornography tends to capture a room and fill it with an uneasy tension as people panic for a change in topic. People would rather talk about anything else. We can’t deny that our culture is filled with sexual references and products designed to be just sexual enough so that it walks the line between pornographic and marketable. We post disgust about sexual exploitation and that we wish it would change, but we don’t address where the conversations must start.
