Emotions
Preparing for Sunday Morning @ Fellowship this week, I came up with this phrase, which may already be a phrase, but I came up with it on my own. I’d like your opinion. You see, many times we get involved with particular activities or organizations that battle injustice because of emotion.
We sponsor a child from Compassion because John Foreman told us to.
We get involved in feeding the poor because it’s the holiday.
We give a little more to the church because the pastor says the church needs more.
None of these activities or organizations are bad, but a lot of times the reason we begin to support them and jump in is because we are struck emotionally. But the problem is:
Emotion is not a sustaining influence.
Just ask the couple who’s been married for 7-15 years or the guy whose cute kids talked him into getting a dog – but he hates animals.
When all you have backing you is emotion as you support or give or help, eventually your emotion is going to wear down, and what will you have left?
Related posts:
“A desire to quit is a sustaining influence.”
Try that out on Sunday imo
I don’t think this is always the case. Compassion IS an emotion , right?? I have known several people..non-Christians..who seem to give and help endlessly..tirelessly, with no desire to quit. Their compassion runs so deep. I often wonder how they have such strong compassion, such desire to help when they don’t know God; they are not serving God in their eyes, they are serving humanity.
They seem to not need to be recognized for their actions…so it’s not a selfish..”look at me and all I do” type of serving. Even many Christians I know seem to always need the “pat on the back” recognition…although they claim “all Glory be to God”, they want a little reserved for themselves.
I do however understand your point…you can’t go around basing important decisions on emotion, you need to make wise choices, true Wisdom only coming from our LORD. Thankfully when Joel and I fell in love( and eventually)married some 19 years ago…totally emotional…not seeking God’s will then, God had bigger plans for us. Had we gone on in that emotional state, surely it would NOT have sustained us! But we came to know and Love Jesus, and ultimalely want our marriage and family life to be pleasing to HIM…having to put aside the “emotion” of the day and look UP for direction.
By the way, I wanted to clarify (Re:Even many Christians I know seem to always need the “pat on the back” recognition…although they claim “all Glory be to God”, they want a little reserved for themselves.) from my previous comment. I am certain I too have been guilty of this. In fact there’s a little secret jar hidden in the back of my kitchen cabinets…kind of like the rainy day fund jar. When I’m feeling really insignificant, I pull the jar out and withdraw a previous “pat on the back” for some service I had done. I think the jar’s label reads something like ” Glory reserved for Kim when she’s feeling low”. Oswald Chambers has a superb writing about this…can’t right now remember where it is in his book.
Hmm… interesting thoughts.
I wonder if we’re at our best when emotions lead to thoughts which lead to emotions which lead to thoughts.
Emotions are so powerful, brief, and unpredictable.
Thoughts are so cold and calculating.
If we’re ruled only by our emotions, we are potential victims to manipulative people, to our preconceptions, etc.
If we’re ruled only by our thoughts, we live these passionless lives.
The people who keep going to make a change, it seems like they’d need to keep thinking about what they are doing, to ensure that they are still doing the right thing, to keep themselves motivated, etc.
Emotion is not a sustaining influence, but balancing it with passion, prudence and your core values brings an incredibly strong thought process and ultimately leads to great decisions.
[...] who’s a pastor in the Northeast writes a blog that I read pretty regularly. He recently did a post reflecting on a message he was preparing. I’m sure he didn’t intend it to have any [...]
As creatures of habit, I think we need to align our environment so that it’s easy or even effortless to do the things we think we *should* do.
When it comes to money, it seems like doing this should be the easiest thing in the world. Set up direct deposit and then set up some kind of autopay. Heck, in an ideal world, all your creditors would agree to receive a percentage of your paycheck, with that percentage based on expected income, debt amount, and payoff term. Instead of a credit limit, you would have a percentage cap. You earmark your income to different needs, with a clear delineation for disposable income.
An emotional encounter would give you an opportunity to reassess your earmarks. It would be a lot harder to -slide- to the point where you have trouble making your monetary commitments.
But it’s not that easy. Banks just don’t do that for you, and even if they did, half your creditors and vendors probably wouldn’t support it. And that’s why budgeting is so important — because you can emulate this approach, and get to the point where your finances can reflect your will and your concern for social issues. When it comes to money, you shouldn’t have to actively persevere.
You should be able to get the point where *not* persevering requires an act of will.
(Of course, this is a lot harder if you don’t have a stable income.)