Off-Track Emotions

I remember well the moments when our boys were very little and their injustice monitors would misfire! The little lawyer that lives inside would assure them that they had been badly treated and that they are fully justified to throw stuff around and have a screaming fit. I mean, how dare we suggest that trying to eat the coal off the fire was a bad idea!

It’s at moments like these where a good parent will help the child recognise what are valid emotions (based on real injustice or pain) and what are off-track emotions (based on misunderstanding or selfishness). It’s part of growing up and becoming healthier in our emotional expression. For parents who avoid this type of intervention, and believe that their darling little Johnny should be free to express whatever he wants, whenever he wants, however he wants, they are actually doing little Johnny (and the rest of the world) a disservice.

But this issue of off-track emotions doesn’t end when a child becomes an adult. We can all feel things deeply which are based on wrong perceptions or self-centredness, and we need the Lord to parent us and bring His truth and correction.

Today’s verse is a classic example of adult off-track emotions. In the previous chapter (Numbers 13) we read the story of the twelve spies going into the promised land to scout it out. They come back with a report that the land is lovely, but that there is just one giant problem … giants! The people listening are not impressed. They instantly forget about God and how He brought them out of Egypt, performed miracle after miracle, and was present with them in their camp. All they saw were giants. The response? Emotions! Lots of emotions. The whole camp wept aloud and they cried all night. Imagine the noise and chaos of a million people camping together and wailing all night.

They were really upset. They felt aggrieved that they had been led into the wilderness, leaving the ‘comfort’ of slavery, to die at the giant hands of giants. They cried and cried and cried. But God was not impressed. Not at all. In fact, in verse 12 of Chapter 14, God says that He will strike them with a plague and disinherit them.

So, what can we learn from this? Emotions can be off-track. They can make us feel as if we are totally justified in our position, when, in fact, our emotions might not be justified. We need the Lord to help us, to parent us, so that we can know what is valid and what is not.

Emotions can start to go off-track when we take our eyes off God, or when fear overwhelms us. It can happen because of misperceptions, or from wrong judgements we have made about others or a particular situation. It can happen when we are trapped in a cycle of self-centredness.

Maybe today we could take time to ask God to help us in this area. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to waste my time feeling things that aren’t valid, or expressing emotions in a way that would be displeasing to the Lord. So, let’s try to pause and invite God into this area of our lives so that we can respond to situations in life in the way that He would respond.