All to often we get into situations where we rely on our thinking and feelings. Sometimes we only touch base with our feelings. Feelings can be developed and experienced through various situations and people. Yep, people can bring up very powerful positive and negative feelings. I needn't talk about "love" or "hate" because you and I are familiar with both. Having feelings is good for the most part. Feelings drive the train of thinking. So, we find ourselves switching trains so that today this feeling can be addressed and tomorrow another can be addressed. Feelings are also part and parcel of our own development. What love can do and has done in our lives fosters positive movement through our lives. What hate can do is negate all those positives. We give a lot of power to our feelings daily. What those feelings are is subject to what we can handle. Some days we run up against a wall while on another day we can conquer the world. Well, kind of...
Finding out who we are is a lifetime experience. Who we are in turn is dictated by feelings. We all have strong feelings. We tend to think our feelings are generated by input from friend and foe. This is not necessarily true. We in fact do have reactions to friend and foe. How we use that reaction is important. What has happened in our past is also important. For the one who was molested feelings are sensitive and sometimes incapacitating. For the one without a parent our feelings can be hindered when we look to friendships and even marriage and parenting. Sometimes horrific events have passed through our lives taking out any protection we may have been able to put up and ward off the horror. Perhaps it was a violent crime or an accident that brings you to a stop in your life. It's happened to me and also to a lot of people I know. There were (and sometimes still are) times in my life when I battled just to survive the day. Subsequently, we either overcame or succumbed to the feelings we encountered. Sometimes we did not survive.
Allowing our thinking or feelings to dictate our life is self defeating. Neither, either separate or together, should be given that much power over our day. Putting on a happy face isn't the answer anymore than believing that the feelings we are having are genuine. When we engage events in our lives there is the tendency to go into denial, engage partially, or go through the event. There is a process of growth that begins while we are in the womb. The Bible tells us that God put us together in our mother's womb. The Bible goes on to tell us that He has ordered our days and knows every detail of our lives from conception to death. God feels even as we feel. God thinks even as we think. The difference is the depth and purpose of that which God has ordained and brings us through. There, of course, are wonderful days just as there are terrible days. Understanding that God is with us aids in our being able to engage life and help others. God says in the Bible that he will neither leave us or forsake us. That cannot be said about mankind.
Our task of understanding feelings needs balance and purpose. Without balance and purpose our lives just continue to spin with no particular meaning. God is the purpose. There is always a plan with God for good and not bad. Sometimes that purpose is seen "down the road." Sometimes we don't see the purpose at all. It's then that God asks us to have the faith to go through the event so that our faith can form and enlarge. Leaving ourselves in God's hands becomes essential to our ability in sharing Christ to the world we live within. It's faith that draws to that feeling of purpose. What's your purpose? What do you feel? God's waiting for you and I to ask Him what the answers are to those questions. We can rely on God through thought and feelings. Yet we make it harder than we need to. Letting go of "our" thoughts and feelings allows us to "engage" His thoughts and feelings. Not a bad option.
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