Yesterday, May 5, was the 200th anniversary of the birthday of the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard (whom I mentioned in a post last week).  I suspect we will be reading much about Kierkegaard in the coming year, and I do not wish, at this point, to add to the pile.  I would, however, like to make this observation.  One of Kierkegaard's most enduring legacies is his idea, which we must understand in its context, that subjectivity is truth.  In other words, what we feel can be just as important as what we know or believe.
     Although our feelings are of course often a less than reliable guide to what is true, Kierkegaard's point is that unless truth, that is, some point of religious or scientific dogma, can be subjectively experienced, it means little.  We cannot function on intellect alone.  We need to be subjective to be whole human beings.  And we need to understand that this subjectivity is, in many ways, the "truth" that makes us truly human.  Without it, we'd never fall in love, we'd never be happy, we'd never be sad, we'd never be anything other than an absent mind.
     Again, subjectivity does not always yield truth, but truth cannot be known apart from it.  As Karl Barth, one of the twentieth century's towering giants of Christian theology, once remarked, "After all I have written, after all I have studied, this one thing, and only this one thing I know:  'Jesus loves me, for the Bible tells me so.'"
     Enjoy your emotions, enjoy your feelings; enjoy that these make you human, and enjoy that these are what enable you to fully know the truth of God.