I’ve got a lot on my mind.

A lot.

I’ve been trying to get it all out on paper and into some organized fashion, but it doesn’t seem to be helping much. It’s not just lists floating around in there, but emotion, too. This happens to me all the time, because I’m nothing if not an emotional being. I have a hard time setting them aside to deal with things rationally. Actually, I can never really set them aside, if I’m being honest. They’re always at play in the recesses of my mind.

For me, emotion is like dumping a bunch of flour into water and making a paste. What was once clear is now thick and opaque, sticky and hard to manage without making a mess. With that paste on my hands, everything I touch is left with an emotional mark, and sometimes I hate it. I can’t be angry without crying, for instance. I can’t make important decisions without my heart placing its own vote in the ballot box.

However, there are times when I don’t mind it at all. I like to feel and feel deeply. I like to put my hands down in that bowl and cover them with paste, then pick up some torn pieces of paper and put them back together into something beautiful. I’ve found it works with people, too, as emotions and deep caring can serve as the paste that facilitates healing. Love is some of the strongest paste of all, unclear at times, sticky and hard to manage, certainly, but strong when applied to the broken places on a regular basis.

I’m going to try to plow through the muck in my head today, and not worry so much about the emotional piece. After all, Jesus was an emotional guy, and someone who is even referred to AS love. He’s always throwing some flour into the pot to stir things up and is the ultimate glue that is eternally binding, putting us back together into something whole and beautiful.

If He’s embracing the paste on His hands, then I’m going to going to embrace it on mine.

Can I get a second?

“He personally carried our sins
    in his body on the cross
so that we can be dead to sin
    and live for what is right.
By his wounds
    you are healed.” 1 Peter 2:24 NLT

“My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can’t know him if you don’t love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.” 1 John 4:8 MSG

“This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.” John 15:12 NLT