Feelings

Feelings

© 2011 George Dunn

One time I said, “If you only believe in what you can see, then you must not believe in love.”

If you're a Christian, you probably know why I said this. It was an attempt to demonstrate that although we cannot see God, that does not mean He does not exist or that belief in Him is unreasonable.

Someone close to me responded in a way that I believe is representative of many people in our culture today:

“I believe in what I feel in my heart.”

Statements like this often make conservative Christians immediately think of Jeremiah 17:9:

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"

We live in a culture that often allows feelings to govern reason rather than allowing reason to inform feelings. Ideally, our minds should help guide our emotional responses.

However, rather than immediately quoting Jeremiah 17:9 with a "turn or burn" attitude, I chose to use the statement as a starting point for a thoughtful conversation.

I've found that if you genuinely want to be heard, you must first understand what the other person is saying and demonstrate empathy for their position. Until then, you haven't really earned the right to speak into their life.

This is how I responded:

"I, too, believe in what I feel in my heart, but I must qualify that statement because my heart alone can be deceptive.

Feelings such as anger, happiness, and sadness are not tangible or material. Yet we know they exist because the brain—the amygdala, hippocampus, basal ganglia, thalamus, and other structures—works together to process our experiences and produce them.

We see children laughing and playing. We recognize fellowship and joy in their behavior. Our minds process that experience, and our hearts respond with happiness.

Likewise, we cannot see the wind itself, but we can see trees bending under its influence. The invisible cause is known by its visible effects.

Just because we cannot see the cause of an experience does not mean the cause does not exist.

When the Spirit of God—the unseen Cause—condescends to save a person, radical changes take place. Over time, those changes become visible both to the individual and to those around him.

That experience, when processed intellectually, produces feelings of assurance, joy, and freedom from guilt.

I am one of those people.

Because of what I have experienced, I can truly say that I feel Jesus in my heart.

In that sense, I can agree with the person who said, 'I believe in what—or who—I feel in my heart.'"