The Garden Within: Where the War with Your Emotions Ends and Your Most Powerful Life Begins

In Phillips’s work, Jesus is central to her model of emotional and spiritual well-being, both providing an example of emotional authenticity and demonstrating God’s deep compassion for humanity. Rather than portraying Jesus as an unattainable figure of perfection, she emphasizes his humanity—his ability to feel deeply, to suffer, and to experience intense emotions—arguing that his life provides a model for integrating faith with mental and emotional health.

One striking example of Jesus’s emotional depth appears when Phillips describes his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane before his crucifixion. She highlights his intense emotional distress, which was so overwhelming that he experienced hematohidrosis, a rare medical condition in which extreme stress causes blood vessels to burst and mix with sweat. Jesus prayed not to suffer, yet his ultimate peace came not from escaping pain but from receiving the strength to endure it. Phillips interprets this moment as evidence that acknowledging and expressing emotions—even fear, sorrow, and distress—is not a failure of faith but an integral part of the human experience.

Additionally, Phillips uses Jesus as an example of righteous anger. She points to his outrage at moneylenders in the temple as proof that anger is not inherently sinful but can be a force for justice and necessary change.