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“Emotion.” For some, even saying or hearing the word activates . . . emotion. But what is it? Or perhaps the question is, “What are they?” Is “emotion” a singular entity or a collection of things? A phenomenon as common as emotion seems so difficult to understand. In my work as a therapist/pastor/elder, I have asked and been asked questions like, “What is emotion?” “What is so important about them?” “Why does it matter what emotion I feel?” hundreds, if not thousands of times. The answer to these questions matters. It matters relationally, spiritually, and naturally, emotionally. However, the essence of the word itself remains difficult to capture. In fact, researcher Thomas Dixon states that the term is so difficult to define and understand that perhaps it should be cast from usage in psychology and science altogether.1 The field of psychology focuses more on the role of “affect” than in defining “emotion.” “Affect” (short “a” as in “apple” with the emphasis on the first syllable) is defined as a person’s “immediate expression of emotion.”2 In over thirty-two years of clinical and church-based practice, I have noted a person’s affect thousands of times. In fact, the linchpin of my experience as a therapist is to guide someone as they unwind their story from places inside of them perhaps long ago locked away. As someone untangles their story, I am honored to hear words like, “I have never told anyone this,” or . . .
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My earliest memories of God centered around a small Methodist church located in a tiny north Mississippi town my mother’s family had faithfully attended since . . .
Several years ago, I received a phone call from my niece, Madison: “Uncle Phil, I prayed to receive Jesus into my heart tonight. I know . . .
