HOW DO YOU SEPARATE PASSION FROM EMOTION?

If you have read anything I have put on Facebook the last couple of days, you know I am reading Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas. This is, of course, if you ignore my reference to the Gas-X commercial last night, but honestly, the line "the skunk has left the barn" still has me laughing. Anyway, Bonhoeffer...love it and I am only on page 198 of a 500+ page book.
What intrigues me most is how it appears Bonhoeffer was so deeply passionate about his relationship with Christ and his convictions about the church, yet at this stage, seems to be able to keep his emotions in check when debating with others. Over and over again, Metaxas cites friends and colleagues of Bonhoeffer stating how well he listened to others. How he calmly debated with his dissenters, never forgetting to respect and esteem the other person's right to their own point of view. He may not have agreed with it, he most certainly tried to point them in the direction of Christ, but it appears (so far) that he never did so by belittling their point or giving over to animosity and anger.
That impresses me.
Call it my X chromosome, call it hormones, call it just being a girl, call it my desire to be right, but there have been many times when my passion and my emotions got tangled up in a big old mess. Especially when it comes to the church. Animosity and anger have been my cohorts more times that I want to admit. Instead of calmly debating and pointing to Christ, I have often found myself thinking (and most likely saying),
Are you kidding me? How could you possibly think that is right? Do you even read your Bible?
Mix that with tears, red faces, and loud voices and that is a little cocktail the enemy is glad to serve up.
You know who gets the brunt of it? Other Christians.
Yep - I tend to have a whole lot more patience for the unbeliever than I do for my brother and sisters in Christ. Is it right? No. Is it true? Sadly - yes.
As I am reading the book, and the accounts of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's life, I have caught myself admiring how Christ like he lived. Now it may all turn south before I am done, but in these 198 pages this has been my observation. How he took teaching the word of God to ANYONE seriously. How he discipled others and not just the I teach a class on Sunday morning, I lead a small group, I stand on the platform kinda way. He discipled them. He got into their messy lives with them. He corrected them. He challenged them. He loved them. He gave them hope.
While in private his emotions may have run the gamut, it seems publicly they did not get the better of him, and I can't help but think that is how Christ would have done it. It is how He does it. His emotions never got Him. Was His passion evident? You bet! It never gave way to His human emotions though.
So while I am impressed with Bonhoeffer's life, I am also challenged to see that same fruit in my own. It was nothing that Bonhoeffer did of himself, but a fruit of the Holy Spirit's work in him. The same Holy Spirit that lives in me. It is possible for me to keep my passion and my emotions separate. With Christ Jesus, it is.
What about you? Do you have a good reign on your emotions? Are you able to keep you passion and your emotions in check? When, and if, you don't sometimes who usually catches it? Are you more patient with believers than unbelievers?
You can comment anonymously. We can let the blogosphere think it's just me who struggles. I'm okay with that....wink wink.