When Star Trek first appeared on television in the late 1960s, it featured a character known as Mr. Spock. From the planet Vulcan, he was rational, logical, and unemotional. He always regarded humans a curious species. He found us racked with such irrational emotions as fear and sadness and physical attraction.
Thirty years after the original Star Trek series had been introduced to TV, a new series began called Star Trek: The Next Generation. The leading non-human character on The Next Generation wasn’t a Vulcan but an android named Lt. Commander Data.
Emotions were a curiosity to Data, just as to Spock.
But while Spock avoided emotions as beneath his rational dignity, Lt. Commander Data longed for the experience of human emotions. He wanted to be human and so he wanted to feel.
I might disappoint Star Trek purists, but Lt Commander Data intrigued me more than Spock.
Unfortunately, some of us are Christian Spocks. We have the mistaken notion that the advanced Christian is someone who’s risen above the mess of human emotions.
Now, no doubt the Bible has much to say about being led by the Spirit instead of being led by your passions and appetites. But we’re not told to obliterate our emotions. God expects us to be passionate people.
For example, consider Psalm 126. The poem is divided into two stanzas. In verses 1-3, we see the people laughing; in verses 4-6 we see the people weeping.
After seventy years of Babylonian captivity, they laughed in astonishment when they were suddenly allowed to return home. But they also wept because only a portion of the Israelites returned with them. To those who stayed, Babylon felt like home.
You and I need to rejoice over God’s saving grace and grieve over those who are still lost and in captivity. Until our passions for these matters flare up as much as they flare up over politics or sports or stuff, we’re not where God wants us to be.
Let’s go deep into Psalm 126 this Sunday. See you at 10am!
Tom
Tom Goodman serves as pastor at Hillcrest Church in Austin, Texas. His sermons are available on YouTube and the HillcrestToGo Podcast and you can find him on Facebook and Twitter. If someone forwarded this email newsletter to you, sign up here to receive Tom’s weekly devotional in your email inbox.