A Response to the Last Post

This is in response to the good comments made about the last post.

The brunt of what I am aiming is the sense that feeling is the rudder of many lives, that to some degree we often live according to how we are feeling: emotion sets the mood and the mood dictates the decision. This, I believe, runs counter to what the bible has to say; biblically, a Christian ought to be guided by truth, that is, the clear truths presented in the bible. Now every life circumstance is not in the bible so at this point we can be guided by GENERAL truths and are given the freedom to make our decisions in light of those general truths. I would have to say objectively and subjectively--in my own experiences--feelings counter to what I know to be absolutely true in many occurrences. So if I acted on the feeling in that moment I know it would be the wrong decision to make. Trepidation may have more to do with how we are wired--why are some instinctively afraid of snakes and others not?--or our wrestling with a situation and THESE feelings ought not to be deemed as God's guidance. Can God use feelings? God can use whatever he desires, but as a standard in the bible I do not see that feelings are how He directs people. But feelings formed within truths are often seen, the gleaming example being God. Love, as Paul speaks of, often COMPELS us to do things that we normally would not, and this is because it is out of love that we feel compelled to help someone as a Christian. Feelings, again, are wonderful gifts of God to be enjoyed as such and they often lace truth; this should not be negative. But when feelings are used to guide the decisions in our lives--great and small--we have cause for questioning and concern. So we should not seek to be void OF emotion, thinking this was of making decisions is best, rather we should make decisions emphatically, making them based on truths that we can entrust ourselves to knowing that we may never have happiness with clear depth on earth but we have a joy that is the base-drum going through our Christian life, something that is truth-oriented but also, to a degree, feeling. As one person said, 'Feelings are not god; God is god.'

So in the end feelings should not win in a debate over truth--this not to say that feelings are not sometimes true themselves, rather they are correct sometimes--they rightly correspond with truth. Admittedly this is a tough subject and is hard sometimes to pin down. I remember one friend saying, 'I can't change how I feel,' and I think to a large degree he is right, however because you feel something does not make that thing or decision right or true, though the feeling itself is genuinely there. Part of maturing as a person is growing the ability to decide, through clouds of emotion, what is best in any particular situation; it is important to be able to curb feelings at some pints, something which is very hard to do. For example, if a wife of 35 with 3 kids has her husband suddenly and unexpectedly die in a car accident, she should not be expected to make all the decisions about the viewing and funeral, much less what she is going to do with her 3 children, the house and cars. In this situation it is most likely best to get council from a trusted source to help make sane the otherwise chaotic world that she is in. Truth is the lake and feelings are the jet ski we sometimes get to use to get the fullest of the situation. I hope this brings some type of clarity.

How Do You Feel?

How do you feel?

Not a question to be answered with ‘great,’ or ‘good,’ or with an ‘I feel a bit under the weather.’ No, in what way, through what filter, in what frame-work do you interpret what you feel?

This may seem an odd question, but have you ever felt a certain way that, looking back on the situation, was not the ‘proper’ feeling? You have heard that someone at work was bad mouthing you and suddenly you recall all the dumb and stupid and mean things they have done and you build an army of anger exploding unknowingly on the accused; then, with emotions ablaze, you interrogate them only to realize they had in fact not said wrong and untruthful things towards you? Oops. Wrong feeling.

How about when you have met someone, gone on some dates, and have completely fallen in love with them but then you accidentally find out that you and four other individuals are ‘the only one’ in this lover’s life? Yikes.

Living by feelings, letting feelings control the direction of your life, is that a positive thing? How can it be bad? Feelings are feelings, they obviously come for some good reason; right? Or is it the feelings are simply feelings? So again, how do you feel? What is a Christian supposed to do with feelings?

A heresy in the Christian world typically occurs when an individual or group of people take one verse—or a part of a verse—or small portion of the bible and isolate it completely from the rest of the bible and then teach to everyone. Obviously, for someone who claims to follow the God of the Christian bible, heresy is generally not a good pool to jump into. On a less severe--but not lesser in danger--scale is misinterpretation. (Misinterpretation is heresy without telling all yours friends, it is what you practice but maybe not preach) Good intentioned people misinterpret what the bible says for many reasons, however the overwhelmingly reason—again this is for good intentioned people—is a lack of wisdom which knows to look at the entire bible and see how a specific verse fits into it.

‘Enough class room time, where are we going?’ Philippians 4.7 (This is in the New Testament portion of the bible) It reads, ‘And the peace of God, which surpasses al understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.’ This is taken, then, by many Christians to mean that after you have prayed about the situation you are in, if you have some mystical peace about you that indicates a divine green-light to move forward with whatever it is.

Taking the rest of the bible into account this, unfortunately, is not the way a Christian should feel, or react with feelings. Serial killers, racists, rapists, thieves, cheaters, liars not everyone who does these things is hindered by how he feels, in many cases it brings a pleasure to the person when they are committing their evil. Using the same peace = it-is-okay formula here is absurd. But why can we forego logic when it comes to my decision? Truthfully we cannot.

‘I use to wear a bracelet asking what Jesus would do, so what would he do? Thankfully, in this situation, we know what Jesus did because he was at a cross-road. We find Jesus agonizing in prayer in the middle of the night. Why is he troubled? He knows that he is about to be betrayed by his friends, that he is going to be beaten and made fun of, and that he is going to be unjustly murdered; more than that he knows that he will have to be without his father’s joyful presence for the first time in literally forever. The bible tells us that Jesus was sweating blood—something that happens with intense emotional stress—as he was praying, he even asked his father that if there was any other way to save people could he do that instead. The answer was no and regardless of the suffering, the pain, the knowledge of the forthcoming soul-shredding, Jesus went obediently with the plan. There was, as Hebrews tells us, future joy, meaning Jesus could see through the tunnel of disaster and see the wonderful outcome, but he was not feeling like getting murdered. Thankfully he went through it all so that for those who follow him do not have to—as far as the judgment of the father being unleashed and the sins paid for. Any argument to say that Jesus had some mystical peace is an argument from silence.

There are other, more trivial and entertaining things to think of such as what if you ate some bad food a few hours before and felt bad while trying to make a big decision, should you go with it? However, that is just for play.

People with ‘peace’ have made terrible decision, and people with no peace have made good decisions. Can you really gauge whether ‘God was honored’ by your decision because you feel a certain way after it? Too often we want signs that what we are doing is best because the bible is not always clear on everything we do, but there in lies the good part of being a Christian and making tough decisions: God is gracious towards us and will work everything for our good in a way that makes Him look wonderfully loving and kind and patient. A Christian understands that though he should look at a situation with wisdom, he is free to fail and he can look back on the bad decision and council others later in life. The book of Romans, in the 8^th chapter states that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus; this means that a Christian is going to sin but there is always forgiveness for him if he but run to Jesus with his sins.

So how should we make decisions—big and small? With care and sincerity. The bible is what God has given us to use as a guide for our lives and decision-making. It does not give detail as to what shirt to wear, but we know we should dress in modesty and have some naked person on it; it does not tell us how to cook dinner, but it tells us that we should not love food more than God and that we should provide it for those who do not have any; it does not tell us who to marry, but it does tell us to marry someone who is on the same life and spiritual track and someone of the opposite gender.

Feelings are a gift from God; feelings can be very good. Feelings are not God and feelings do not guide our life, in fact, the peace Paul talks about in Philippians is used to guard us, for in our moments of weakness and failure instead of doubting whether we really follow Jesus and wallowing in our bad decisions feeling sorry for ourselves and dying with remorse, we can look to Jesus who went against his feelings and did not fail.

A Quote from Gene Weingarten on Writing

'A real writer is someone for whom writing is a terrible ordeal. That is because he knows, deep down, with an awful clarity, that there are limitless ways to fill a page with words, and that he will never, ever, do it perfectly. On some level, that knowledge haunts him all the time. He will always be juggling words in his head, trying to get them closer to a tantalizing, unreachable ideal.'

Gaius and The Whole Church

In the Book of Romans we find a sentence in the last chapter--the big numbers--and the 23 verse: 'Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you.'

Not much is known about this individual except that he might be the one mentioned by Paul in 1 Corinthians 1.14, one who was baptized by Paul. This is more than likely not the same Gaius mentioned in Acts 1929 or 20.4.

What do we know about this guy? Well, Gaius is playing host to an individual. It is assumed that the 'me' mentioned in verse 23 is the apostle Paul and not Tertius who is physically writing the letter--Paul is more than likely dictating it. Wither way, Gaius is hosting an individual who is a follower of Jesus Christ. But it is said that Gaius is not only hosting an individual but also the ‘whole church.’ There are 2 ways, in my opinion, to look at the latter: he is literally hosting lots and lots of people--this may cause a spacial and geographical problem as Christians were literally spread across the then known world (feel the sarcasm) or by his hosting one Gaius is, in a sense, hosting the whole church. With references to ‘the whole church’ found in Acts 5.11 and 15.22, it is safe to say that the some represent the whole in certain uses. This is encouraging as we see that when we do simple and ordinary things for one part of the church we are doing it for the whole Church. It is often difficult to think of someone as something other than an individual, after all it is our society that champions individualism. But here, in the Bible, an individual is not only part of a greater group, but an individual represents entirely a group of individuals that crosses centuries and rounds the world. Think about it this way, in the Bible the Church--all followers of Jesus Christ--is described as being a--singular--bride belonging to Christ. A bride is not usually many but what God is doing is laying out each Christians identity: a group with one face. We can think about this concept another way as well, when you burn the hand the whole body is burned.

This is also encouraging because when you are a believer in the God of the Bible you fall under the care of that same God. You are no longer an individual who cannot accomplish the favor of a God who demands perfection and will wield eternal justice on those who fail to do so, rather you are part of God's family, you are part something that cannot be divided.

Gaius probably opened his home for some to live in, maybe he brought them food, maybe he simply visited them in prison, it is not entirely clear. What is clear is that we can serve the collective church--the people who follow Jesus Christ--when we serve one individual who is part of it. Christians are those who live, day in and day out, week after long week, not for recognition and fame, but to serve God in whatever capacity they are called to; sometimes it is going from city to city establishing churches like Paul did, but other times it is by simply hosting the Pauls.