Deceptive Feelings

September 4, 2019

Two years ago on this date, I wrote about our perceptions of reality. In the two years since I penned those words, our social and political climate has changed drastically, making those observations even more pertinent, in my opinion. We are now living in a world where a person’s inner feelings trump external, observable, and scientific reality. If people “feel” they are of the opposite sex than their DNA and their sexual organs indicate, those feelings are deemed more true and real than demonstrable evidence to the contrary, to the extent that others who refuse to acquiesce to those fantasies can be prosecuted. Yet it remains true that feelings are never a good measure of reality. At the same temperature, I feel warm and my wife feels cold. Which is it? It is whatever the thermometer says it is. When we allow subjectivity to rule, we enter a country with no landmarks, where the sands are continually shifting, and the wind and waves erode all that was once sound and stable. It is a dangerous place to be.

When I was in fourth grade, our class put on what essentially was a morality play. I was cast as a hayseed farmer who came on stage yelling at a couple kids who were doing something wrong. According to the script, their reply was to laugh and say, “Here comes that old windbag!” As a nine-year old, I wasn’t able to make the distinction between script and real life. Those words cut to the quick, and I believed that this was what my friends really thought of me. I failed to check my perception against reality. My belief in turn, produced feelings of worthlessness, inferiority, and friendlessness.

Our feelings are not accurate reflections of reality. They are the result of our interpretation of, and our beliefs about our past, present, and future. If as children, our parents or teachers or friends told us we were stupid, no good, or worthless and we believed it, we felt worthless and dumb. And unless our beliefs change, even as adults we will continue to feel those same feelings. If you haven’t achieved as an adult all you imagined you would when you were younger, you may believe you’re a failure. If you believe it, you’ll feel it. What we believe determines our feelings and actions. 

The Bible tells us that everything of value is rooted in faith. What we believe makes all the difference, which is why it is so important that what we believe is true. People believe all sorts of lies and falsehoods which end up distorting and twisting their lives into sad caricatures of all God intended for them. Jesus said, “I am…the Truth” (John 14:6). When we start with what Jesus tells us about ourselves, it’s hard to go wrong. After all, he knows us best. What I believed back in fourth grade was rooted in a false perception, and resulted in years of self-doubt. It wasn’t until I began to believe what Jesus tells me about myself that I began to shed the baggage I had carried for so long. I discovered a new reality in Jesus Christ that made all the difference. For that new reality and the faith to receive it, I am thankful tonight.