Woops, late post today. But it is still today and not tomorrow, so it still counts! (It just might make a little less sense than usual…)
OK, we’re not done with Encanto (recap is on day 5). But today’s character doesn’t have her own song. Or she doesn’t have a song specifically about her. She is one of Abuela’s daughters, and Mirabel’s aunt, Pepa. Her gift is that her mood affects the weather.
Ah, obvious problem. What happens when she has a bad day? The town gets wet. What happens when she has a really bad day? Batten down the hatches, there’s a storm coming! So Pepa always has to be in control of how she is feeling. That’s a lot of pressure. But she tries so hard to keep thinking ‘clear skies’ in order to keep life comfortable for the people around her. She doesn’t always succeed, but she always tries. She knows that if she loses control of how she feels it will affect those around her, those she loves. So she tries to push down bad feelings. Except that just makes them build up and build up and eventually explode into something worse (hurricane, anyone?)
OK, so I’m reading a lot between the lines for this character. This may not all be accurate for Pepa. But I think it can be accurate for a lot of real people to some extent. We can sometimes think we need to be in control – of emotions, of circumstances… In fact, being out of control can seem very scary. So we can try to control as much as we can. Has that ever been you?
But sticking with the emotion thing, it can be simar for us as with Pepa – maybe not literally creating a storm with wind and rain, but by pushing down and ignoring emotions because we don’t want to lose control because we don’t want to hurt the people around us, actually puts us in a much worse position. It does make the eventual (and inevitable) storm much worse. Its OK to reach out and ask for help.
Right, this blog is about pointing to God, so here’s my bible backing for this: Jesus never ran away from what he was feeling. In the Garden of Gethsemane, he cries out to God in grief and fear, and he asks his friends to keep him company. After his cousin is killed he takes time away to grieve. When the temple is being used in a way that stops people from coming to God, he gets angry. And I mean really angry! (Over turned tables, scattered coins, uncaged birds… chaos!)
The point is, we were made with emotions so we have to deal with them. If we try to bury them, we are blocking off a part of ourselves. And God doesn’t want part of us, he wants all of us. The good and the bad, the pretty bits and the ugly bits, the happy days and the sad days. Because God wants a true and honest relationship.
So sometimes it’s OK to relax control a little bit. Pepa did, and instead of dark storms, you could find her dancing in the rain. We don’t need to be in control, God is in control. Sometimes, all we need to do is let the rain fall.
The Reason for my Hope Blog 