day 35- The vision to transform my mind’s feelings (pt. 1)

Feelings are at the front of the line when it comes to our minds. Sometimes people ask, “How are you feeling today?”

Has anyone ever asked you, “How are you thinking today?”

I was watching a panel discussion on the 9/11 commission report on CSPAN 2 while on treadmill at the health club (The Simpsons wasn’t available) and I was struck by the tone of the questioning and responses.

Why do you think the terrorists feel the way they do? What is causing them to feel that way about Western countries? What more can we do to understand why they feel the way they do?

No one asked the obvious.

What kind of thinking is the source of such diabolical actions? What are the ideas and images the terrorists use as their sources that fuel this type of response?

Feelings are absolutely necessary because they make us come alive and they drive our activities. We accept we have feelings and we learn to channel them in the right places and in the right way. Dallas says,

“Feelings can be good servants but they are a horrible master.”

So how do we work on a vision to transform our mind’s feelings? Today, what doesn’t work, and in the next post, what does work.

what won’t work
1. Trying to take our feelings on directly
We don’t know the power of feelings if we think we can just face them directly with willpower. The direct approach at changing our mind at the spur of the moment is not helpful. If we are being strongly influenced by feelings of anger, fear, sexual attraction, the need for approval, and such, to just say, “Quit it!” to yourself, or to simply give in and allow your feelings to rule, “I can’t help how I feel”, well… There is a better way.

2. Denying our destructive feelings or pouring them out on others
It doesn’t do any good to ignore the fact we do have destructive feelings like anger, greed, jealousy, lust, and the list goes on. The Bible even has these lists in several places (e.g. Colossians 3:5-8). We can’t deny we have these sinful feelings and we can’t try to just keep them inside and then they will naturally go away. There is another way.

The other way is not to act these feelings out. We don’t give in to them and take it out on our others. Like screaming at someone and then thinking, “Now I feel much better.”

The way to transform destructive feelings is to replace them with helpful feelings. This is one of the central keys to living a transformed life. It is only under the partnership of Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit that we can become the kind of people who lose these awful feelings, and have feelings that are helpful to others and that build us up.

Wear a rubber band around your wrist and every time you catch yourself feeling something unhelpful, snap it! Try it for a couple of days.