Emotional Rescue?
Lately I’ve been thinking about how emotion-driven American society has become. I suppose the seeds were sown in the 1960s when “If I feels good, do it!” became the catch phrase of a generation. I remember how one of my college professors tried-in vain-to stem this tide by repeatedly lecturing us to say “I think X is true.” Rather than “I feel X is true.” Then there was Obi Wan telling Luke to “Trust your feelings.” And of course, who hasn’t been told that they need to get in touch with their feelings? The problem is, emotions are almost always a shaky basis for decision making.
An instrument rated pilot knows about this quite well. When darkness or clouds obscure the horizon the pilot knows he must rely on his instruments-not his feelings- to guide him to his destination. You see, the inner ear does a great job of maintaining one’s balance only as long as there are visual cues to Up and Down. More than one pilot has flown serenely through the night only to find the moon below him. A pilot who trusts his feelings over his instruments usually winds up dead.
In our daily lives our feelings can often place us in similar predicaments. A pastor friend told me about counseling a man who had left his wife for another woman. The guy told my friend that since he began the illicit relationship he “felt closer to God than ever before.” Somehow, I just don’t think that adultery draws one closer to God. But don’t take my word for it-ask Samuel about King David. Sadly enough, this misguided individual is not alone. Far too many Christians allow emotions to negatively affect their Christian walk. Perhaps they “feel” that God is distant, or they “feel” abandoned by God. Discouragement and depression often follow.
In many of these situations I think that the problem can be traced to spiritual starvation. The Bible should serve as our unchanging and eternal bank of instruments. If our feelings and emotions are leading us to do something that God’s Word says is sinful, then OUR FEELINGS ARE WRONG-plain and simple. And if we feel lost and alone, we need to remember that He will never leave us or forsake us-and hold on to that promise with all of our strength. Yes, sometimes this reliance on Scripture over emotion can feel awfully counter-intuitive, but I’m convinced that it is a discipline we would do well to master. Any relationship based only on fickle and fragile whims of emotion is doomed to mediocrity. The all-important eternal relationship with our creator requires that we engage our heart, soul AND mind.