Why Feelings Shouldn't Be Trusted

I was speaking with a very dear couple (count them among our closest friends) last night in our group that has a mom who has gotten completely delusional. She has begun to accuse her husband of 50+ years of various crimes against their marriage. Now, none of the crimes are true, but the “trueness” of the feelings in her head make it absolutely true to her, and, depending on who she talks to and to what degree they have complete context, she is very convincing that these crimes actually occurred. Her feelings and self-rationalization have created a reality that is nothing close to actual reality, but without being willing to research and accept truth (her mind isn’t able to do so and will require medical intervention), her alternate view of the world will never be changed.

The mind is a very funny thing. It has the power to convince us of things that have no basis in reality, but it really doesn’t matter. We can put ourselves in the position of finding comfort in our own internal discourse and simply deciding that we don’t need anyone else (or anything else) to challenge us. However, if we do allow others and other sources to at least challenge us, it only adds 1)defense to the position we have embraced, or 2)evidence of the fallacies we have accepted.

I remember how troubled I felt after seeing the movie "A Beautiful Mind". I couldn't believe that John Nash could be so convinced in his mind of a reality that wasn't based on truth that it eventually caused him to go completely insane - not knowing what was real and what was fake. And I've talked to a few men over the past few years that have been involved in divorces where their spouses created alternate realities that, in one case, completely destroyed one man's career, community, and rocked his faith. However, in this one case, not only did he know the truth about his marriage relationship and the false accusations that came from his spouse who "felt" strongly about those accusations, but he also knew the Truth about his Savior and chose to cling there and find redemption over time. Now when I see him, there's a peace that emanates - but it's not a false peace. He is a scarred person - scarred by feelings not based in truth - but he also knows that his only philosophy/faith/world view or whatever you want to call it cannot be based on what he feels at the moment or what others feel about him, but it can only be based in truth. In his case, that truth is from the collection of books in the Bible, and the accounts of countless people who walked with or in some other way experienced the story of Jesus Christ.

I have nothing against anyone who is on a journey of struggling with faith - in fact, I am more encouraged by them than those that blindly accept Christ without searching for themselves. There are countless examples - the disciples themselves - that struggled with faith all during Jesus’ life with them and even AFTER the resurrection. And they were there! But a struggle implies two or more forces, and one of those forces must be something other than our minds and feelings. Otherwise, it’s not much of a fight, is it….

AM