Intense Emotional Expressions

First, let me state that I have not [yet] done my homework on this issue. I was privy to a few discussions at school among the faculty and students regarding sin and emotions. From what I recall a case can be made either way that some emotions can be sinful or it is what your emotions lead you to do that would be sinful. Surely the second is true in many practical examples, seen most often when we are angry; we quite often will sin when angry, which is why we are warned: "In your anger do not sin." (Eph. 4:26). This does not mean that only our actions produce sin, not our emotions, but that some of our emotions can easily lead us to sin. Still, my question remains, is there an emotion that is in itself a sin? This alone could change my thinking on this entire issue. The curious thing here is that most Christians live as if some of their emotions were sin .

Without beating a point to death (and beyond) I want to point out that we are not told never to be angry, only to not sin in our anger. Of course God Himself has been angry, and if God is sinless, then anger is not sinful. We can also deduct that if God acts on His anger and remains sinless then there are appropriate action counterparts to anger. Still, an action resulting from an emotion and an expression of an emotion can be different. I can be angry, do nothing, yet express my anger (this is a fine hair, as my expression may be considered an action in and of itself). By all of this I only wish to point out that God too has emotions, He responds to His emotions (He seems to, I may be misinterpreting things), and He remains holy and sinless. By deduction we ought to be able to do the same, yet with difficulty for we possess a sin nature God does not.

I would like very much to make a distinction between expressions and actions, for this pondering of mine, at its heart, is a question about appropriate expressions. All too often the line between our expression of an emotion and our resultant action due to the emotion is blurred. If I have a happy emotion, I could express it by giving a hug, but the hug might also be the resultant action of my happiness (maybe someone gave me a really cool gift). If I am feeling romantic and amorous, I might compose a poem, which would be an expression, or I might prepare a candlelight dinner which would be a resultant action, and probably not an expression of my feeling (though I would hope my feelings might be guessed). If I were to get angry, now we have a different situation, for I have been warned not to sin in my anger, in a case like this I would want to know if my expression of anger could be a sin.

The more I think about this subject the more I think the core of the issue is in our presentation, our communication, of our emotions. Most often I want to communicate my emotions to someone. Sometimes this is easy, sometimes this is near impossible. What I find most interesting about this kind of communication is a distinct trouble I have with vocabulary, for how does one select words that accurately convey the depth, severity, flavour, and intensity of a given feeling? The problem really seems to only present itself when an intense or extreme emotion is present. In all other cases there are actions we can perform that do a good job of communicating our feelings (though "good" is a broad term, including "not great"), but when an intense emotion presents itself I (I don't know about the rest of the world) preach a message of caution to myself and choose to use words. Over exuberance can lead to a bear hug that can actually cause pain, severe sorrow can lead to [near] suicidal actions, and I don't think I need to mention what intense anger can lead to.

Perhaps my lack at finding words and expressions to convey my feelings is why I fail at poetry (writing, reading, and appreciating). Some even go so far as to jokingly state I have no soul, for this reason (and others). What strikes me as quite curious are the meaning of words. We often times ascribe meaning to words apart from their "real" (read: denotative) meaning. Sometimes this is in ignorance, other times because of slang or jargon, and also a purposed and calculated change (I think of the use of geek as an identity distinguished from nerd, yet not carrying the meaning of one who would eat anything). Something I have noticed (truly, it would be hard not to notice this) is what set of vocabulary people use when they are angry. What as finally struck me (it has taken me years to get over the shock of hearing "bad words") is the meaning behind the words. I have been angry enough to use some of the same words (and have on a few occasions) and it has been very hard to use the words in their proper context and meaning. In other words, I imagine it is quite rare that someone actually means what they say whey they use foul language. (This of course raises another question: "What makes a word more foul than another, and why?")

In the end I have to say I can see beyond [some of] the vocabulary people use in intense situations. The hard part for me, as a Christian, is knowing what I am allowed to do in the same situation. For some reason I have had it drilled into me that certain words are taboo, and saintly people would never use them. I want to explore that some other day, but for now I will accept it, for my conscience tells me to. So what do I have to take the place of these words? Are the words themselves the problem, or is it the attitude behind it? Is it the attitude that's the problem, or what I do? If I am allowed to be angry, and I want to inform others of my anger (perhaps for their own protection, perhaps for some help, etc.) how do I do it? Or what if I am surprised and alarmed; what if I nearly run over a kid on a bike, what words can I use to express myself? What if I am amazed and awestruck, what words can I use that would convey my wonder and admiration to the depth that I might feel it?

This whole issue has been quite perplexing to me. I am not the judge. I do not determine if sin has occurred or not. But this I know, some words are used not offense, but in expression. I have seen people shocked, surprised, and alarmed, and expressed it with a "choice" word. It held no offense to me, only deepened my sympathy for them. Was that wrong of them? I have seen others express their anger, and I understood them well enough. I have even seen wonderful expressions of joy, mirth, bewilderment, amazement, awe, sorrow, grief, and passion, all with expressions that at their core, no offense was made or meant, but in their packaging most Christians would wince and inwardly think condemnation. Is it as "simple" as creating a new vocabulary? Is there truly anything wrong with the present one? How does one express an intense emotion and remain sinless, or is sin even imputed in these cases?