February 10

“Remember, then, that the real thing in your experience is what your will decides, and not the verdict of our emotions; and that you are far more in danger of hypocrisy and untruth in yielding to the assertions of your feelings, than in holding fast to the decision of your will.”  Hannah Whitall Smith, The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life

Hannah is the second author I’ve read in the past month who has spoken to me about my “hypocrisy fear.”  Because my emotions have always ruled me I felt it was hypocritical to act happy if I didn’t feel happy.  And I wouldn’t allow myself to feel happy if I didn’t believe the circumstances called for me to be happy.  What I’ve been woken up to is that I’ve given my emotions far too much power over me.  Emotions are merely indicators of what we are thinking.  If we are thinking fearful thoughts we will feel afraid.  If we are thinking loving thoughts, we will feel loving.  Emotions are merely after effects.  They are like shadows that lie in front of us because the sun is behind us.  We are not our shadows.  We are our wills and the sun is our thoughts.  Will our thoughts come down from above so that no shadow is cast?  Or will they come from behind us in the recesses of our minds, controlling us, making us think that the shadow before us is who we really are?

“At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining round me and those who journeyed with me.”  Acts 26:13