Yahweh

A few years ago, my life changed when I learned a simple fact about neuroscience. I remember hearing these words, and I knew I would never forget them: “Rachel, scientifically, you can only hold a strong emotion for ninety seconds.” Unbelievable because right now, the pain feels like it’s going to kill me. Chances are, you know that feeling. But when we fight the emotion, we make it worse by perpetuating the problem, giving it power over us, and keeping ourselves stuck.

When we have the awareness that overwhelming emotions initially last for no longer than ninety seconds, we can allow them to ripple through us, producing a wave without any resistance. We can let those emotions go without further reactions.

Psalm 126 is the well of all wells for the broken. It has given me life, and it has allowed me to rejoice in the tears that have given new birth to joy. God created us to hold emotion and release it. God created us to experience the wave and then surrender to his peace.

Prayer: Let the life swell in me, Jesus, and let me be wise with how I carry it. Yahweh, be with me.

Written by Rachel Faulkner Brown

This plan contains devotions from Widow’s Might: 365 Days of Strength for Grief and Lossby Rachel Faulkner Brown.