FAITH OR FEELINGS

By Christine Jayakaran

I am a feeler.

There I said it! I feel for things and for people. I am all heart. This may be a good thing but there is a down side to this. Since I lead with my heart I have often gotten derailed with the enormity of my feelings and as a result have lost focus and direction. While it is important to care for people and for the things concerning people I realise now, that faith must rise above feelings.

Let me explain what I'm learning. I recently watched a family friend choose to say yes to working on her marriage even when the odds were against her just because she believed in her marriage. I see a college friend of mine battle a difficult illness without giving into fear and anxiety because of her faith that her healing will come. I see a colleague not giving up on a skill inspite of an injury that threatened that very skill by just believing for a miracle. I see a close friend stick with her job even during the hardest times because she believed her best was yet to come.

Our feelings are real and important. I won't deny that. It's what differentiates us from bots and creatures of the wild after all. But... if I allow my feelings to drive me around I'm going to end up in a tragic wreck (I began driving this week after ages, hence the car analogy!!)

Feelings can be a vital indicator of things that affect me or people that are influencing me. I get to choose my reactions to those feelings and can allow it to either make or break me. Faith, on the other hand, steps in to temper those feelings.

I have read of how steel is tempered in order for it to lose its brittle and stiff quality. Tempering involves heating the metal to a critical temperature and then allowing it to cool in still air. The resultant material has increased utility since it is now ductile and malleable while also lasting longer. Tempered steel is twice as durable as untreated steel. Do you see what I'm trying to get at? If we live solely based on how we feel we become emotionally brittle and are less effective. Instead if we allow faith in, we find ourselves becoming stronger emotionally and more purpose filled and fruitful in every area of our lives.

Feelings are very important since they make us human but our faith strengthens us to a point where we become super-human since we have now allowed God into the mix (enter the 'super' part of that equation). Faith to me, looks a little like this- focussing on the lining and not just the cloud. It's dancing in the pouring rain. It's smiling through your tears. It's seeing a Towering God far bigger than the towering mountain before you.

Honestly I have had to have a series of hard knocks to come to the realisation that faith must trump feelings in order for me to live a life of value and purpose. I will not waste my time feeling for things that do not warrant my energy or mind space. Instead I will believe that those dead things or difficult situations will come back to life or at least bring about some good in me as I go through them.

Will you choose faith over your feelings today?

I'm still a feeler and will be one for the rest of my life as I see it, so can you. I'm not asking you to change who you are. Will you though, move your feelings over to the passenger seat and allow God back into the driving seat where he rightfully belongs (Now I'm really done with the car analogies.) You can choose to feel dejected, hopeless or angry at what life is throwing at you right now, or you can decide to sit up and look around you in faith - seeing things that aren't as if they were!