Feeling and Facts

 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? ~ Jeremiah 17:9

Jeremiah’s unpleasant calling was to express God’s dissatisfaction with and judgement upon the kingdom of Judah. This short phrase falls amid long lists of sins of the flesh that brought Judah down. In scripture, “the heart” is analogous to feelings. Let’s reconsider the passage with that in mind. Feelings are unreliable and even desperately malfunction, so how do we make sense of them? 

Feelings are emotional responses to situations and perceptions. One’s emotional health correlates with the reliability of his feelings. Biological traits and environmental circumstances combine to affect one’s emotional and physical health. For example, if a person born with a birth defect encounters a situation she is incapable of dealing with, she can accept the unreliability of her body as the cause. Physical unhealthiness is hard to deny, but we routinely ignore emotional dis-ease. 

Jeremiah’s lament for Judah informs us that entire societies can succumb to environmentally induced emotional illness. Government rooted in feelings, combined with security built upon feelings, is like a house built on sand. Masterful manipulators market feelings-based products and causes because their constituent’s feelings are more vulnerable and moldable. One can readily identify that form of systemic degradation as the cause of Israel's and Judah’s decline.

Feelings are as vital to one’s well-being as organs in the body and are equal in the way the Creator wonderfully made humans in His image. Interestingly, medical science learned early on that bypassing or removing some organs when they malfunction will not cause detrimental consequences to vitality. Star Trek fans will recall that Vulcans like Mr. Spock intentionally suppressed emotions because they were illogical. The evolution of the Vulcan arch in the lore of Star Trek shows that pure logic is impossible and boring. Mr. Spock was half human and half vulcan because it made for good storytelling and exploration of the human condition. Captain Kirk relied on his gut instincts and Mr. Spock’s reason to make critical decisions and it’s been entertaining Star Trek fans for decades.  

It can be said that feelings are more tied to the world of the flesh and facts are more closely associated with ethereal thought. To bluntly illustrate the point, let us consider the very poor whose flesh drives their daily pursuit of essential food, shelter, and safety. They have little time and energy for philosophy and reason. Political thinkers, philosophers, and theologians are usually quite comfortable and indulgences rather than essentials satisfy their flesh. 

“What’s your point?” you may ask. It is to reflect on the last two years and the new one ahead and imagine a way forward for Christian Believers who are weary and seeking the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. If feelings are an essential part of our being, but they are, for various reasons, unreliable in and of themselves, we find hope in balancing feelings with facts. Experience and wisdom inform the following formula by which I endeavor to achieve such balance: 2(facts) ≧ 1(feelings). In other words, Begin with facts; consider feelings, and then return to the facts. 

Chaos, disunity, and spiritual decline are all signs of Satan’s influence, as he always strives to manipulate feelings and cravings of the flesh. The biblical facts tell a different story. God the Father is the author of cosmic order. The Father created it for the sake of the Son, whose love for the Father it manifests in His love for the people created for union with the Son. The Father and Son’s love caused human salvation from chaos and death. Their love became flesh through the Son and is now alive in our flesh by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we no longer live for the sake of our flesh, as divine reason and unimaginable grace supersedes our feelings. Ironically, heavenly logic always seems absurd to the world of the flesh and its master. So, one’s response to the LORD’s promptings is a powerful indicator of his spiritual and emotional health. 

What will 2022 be like for you? How will you respond to the world of the flesh and the leadership of the Holy Spirit? Will you balance your feelings with biblical facts? Will you align yourself with people of the flesh or other sojourners on the Way home to the Father and our Bridegroom, the Son?