Gregory of Nyssa knows what's up

Today in A Year with the Church Fathers, we hear from St Gregory of Nyssa. And he tells us about passions. We've heard about passions for the last two days, so you'd think we'd be full up.

But Gregory of Nyssa gives us great advice. He doesn't tell us to subjugate our passions to our reason, like we read the last couple days. Instead, he lines out what all of the passions are FOR. He tells us the God-given reason that we have each passion.

For instance, he says that we have anger and hatred so we can direct them at sin. We have sorrow so we can experience it when we confess our sins. He goes through each emotion and gives us the proper place for it.

This is useful. And it brings us to a bigger truth... that every THING in the universe is good. There are no evil things. Evil actions, yes. Evil intentions. Evil desires (like to take some guns to Vegas and kill 58 people). But THINGS are not evil. We just have to, like with emotions, find their proper places.

Most poisons, when used correctly, are also medicine. TNT is a good thing, when used to build bridges. Guns are good when we use them to scare off thieves or attacking animals.

When we find ourselves upset because of what is happening in our lives, we should look to see what the proper meaning is. To find the place in our life where that time belongs. There are some times that we just need to leave. We need to learn not to go there, or do that, again. But most of the seasons in our lives have good lessons, if we'll just ask Him to explain them to us.

And then, like Gregory of Nyssa, we will find the right use for everything.

God, thanks for teaching us the right use of passions, and through them, the right place and time for everything.