Feelings are a theological nuisance... Or Not. Part 2

Like I've mentioned in earlier posts (see Holiness? How old fashioned or I'm only human or You can change but not...) I'm currently working my way through a book called You can Change that's helping me fight my idols. Dum dum dum.

What I haven't mentioned that one of my idols is that of academic success. Now, for those of you who don't know me, I'm a bit of a geek, a nerd, someone who is very interested in what she studies, and therefore works very hard at it. With relatively good results. So one of the idols I'd created in her head was of getting one of the awesome scholarships or bursaries for overseas studies. So you can imagine the minor existential crisis I had when I found out that I hadn't gotten any calls for follow-up interviews. And coming as it did during a time of idol-smashing, I was already in a fragile state of mind, and even more frustrated and upset than I thought I would have been. There was much wailing. Even more, gnashing of teeth. But the chapter of You can Change that I read later that day put everything into an amusingly ironic light:

Why do we do the things we do? Why do we get angry, frustrated, irritable or depressed or, for that matter, happy, excited or content? Why do we lie, steal, fight and gossip? Why do we dream, fantasize, envy and plot? Why do we overwork and overeat?... (72)

Angry? Frustrated? Irritable? Depressed? Check, check, check, check, check. All of those described me at that moment.

And here's the answer:

According to the Bible, the source of all human behaviour and emotions is the heart (73).

Like Tim Chester points out, our feelings can therefore be used diagnostically to indicate whether our hearts are in the right place. For me, my overthetop reaction showed me clearly that my heart had made too much of this idol, believing that it was what I deserved and what I needed in my future. I should have, instead, been trusting in God's sovereignty, and His plan for my life, no matter how scary it may seem at times. Eek!

So Part 2 on Feelings would conclude: Feelings are a great theological tool for heart-diagnosis :)

What can I say at the end of this two-part thought? I leave you with the challenge of not being overwhelmed by your emotions, but using them to see if God is using them to point back towards Him, or if they can be used to show you about the state of your relationship with Christ.

Which is easy to say now when I'm sitting nice and cosy, happy in my bed, but it's another case when you're actually mad and fuming. Good luck with that ;)