Your emotions are indicators of what is happening in your mind, whether through stored memories or current thoughts. Why are you afraid when watching a scary movie? When something scary happens on the screen, why do you jump? Is it because you are in danger? Of course not – it is just a movie!
Scary Movie
Suppose you are watching a scary movie, but you tell yourself, “I am watching a story filmed for entertainment, especially to create fear and excitement. There will be scenes created specifically to scare me, but I know that is not really happening to me.”
That would take all the fun out of the movie, wouldn’t it?
The film is structured to draw you into the story, appealing to your emotions and making you feel as though you are one of the characters in the movie. When you remind yourself of reality, the fear is reduced or may be removed. Your thinking is primarily what your emotions are responding to; therefore, reducing the film’s efforts to engage your fear.
Two Important Implications
First, feelings and emotions are primarily RESPONDERS. When you watch a movie and experience emotions such as fear, sadness, happiness, or tears, your emotions are responding to the movie. Feelings need something to respond to. You could also say that they are responding to your memories of past experiences.
Second, and most importantly, feelings are often UNTRUSTWORTHY. Your emotions are untrustworthy if you can be scared but not in danger (like watching a movie). Your feelings are real, but they are responding to something that is not real. That is why when you tell yourself, “It’s just a movie,” the emotions are reduced or removed; they respond more to your thinking.
The SOLUTION – love – is not emotionless, nor is it emotion-led.
Which Order Do You Use?
Consider the options for the three words: Think, Feel, Act. Which sequence do you suppose most people use?
How about you?
Like it or not, people typically react and respond like an amoeba – a single-cell organism with little or no ability to think. Poke it, and it will move away. Offer sugar, and it will come to you.
Consider this critical scripture passage:
Matthew 22:37-40 (NKJV)—Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Which is first in those verses – Thinking, Feeling, or Acting?
Everything depends on what “love” is. The construction of the sentence says “love” is a verb; therefore, action is first. Further analysis leads most to say that “love” is a feeling, so the conclusion would be that God is asking us to act on a feeling.
Actually, God is asking you to make a decision. Review the working definition of love: “Pursuing their best, patiently, kindly, sacrificially and unconditionally.” That is a decision! That requires thinking to make a conscious choice. And, possibly, more importantly, you read the scripture or have it told you first! The information processing would be first, even if you decided love was a feeling. So, a reasonable conclusion is that thinking is first in those verses.
If it is true that emotions are indicators of what is rattling around in your mind, then you have an excellent opportunity to use them to check what you are thinking about.
Before going any further, I think emotions and feelings are great! The proper use of emotion allows us to enjoy the highs and lows of life. The danger lies in trusting your feelings to initiate actions without examining what they are responding to. In other words, what you are thinking.
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