it is easier to act your way into feeling than to feel your way into acting
do you agree with that statement?
i read that quote a few days ago and now i can't get it out of my head. the reason i can't get it out of my head is because i realized that most of my life i have tried to feel my way into acting. it happens with a variety of things. here are a few examples.
i really feel like my relationship with God would be better if i would just spend more time with him. for some reason, that desire hasn't turned into anything more than just that, a desire. i really feel like fighting poverty and helping the poor. to be honest, i haven't really done much in that area, even though i talk about how much i care about it all the time. i really feel like being a kind person. sounds simple enough, right? but everyday, i find myself glaring at the person who cut me off, ignoring someone i know needs help, taking out frustrations on my family...this list could go on for awhile, so i'll leave it there.
and the list of things that i feel like doing could also go on for a long time. there are so many things that i desire to do or ways that i wish to be, but for some reason, they just haven't happened. i say "for some reason" but i really know the reason. the reason is because i just don't do them. i just don't spend time with God. i just don't help the poor as much as i should. i just decide not to be kind to people on a regualr basis.
what does this mean? does it mean that those things aren't really that important to me? i've been kind of scared that that is the case lately. if i really cared about these things, God, the world, my relationships...then they would all be incredible and amazing and i wouldn't have to feel this way anymore because i would have them and my search would be over. but i don't really think that's true. i don't think it means i don't care about them. i think it means i'm lazy. i think it means i'm selfish. i think it means i'm angry. i can still want to be or do something but suck at it. so the problem isn't that i don't really care about these things (and trust me, those things i mentioned were only the first three out of a thousand i could have written). the problem is that i won't act. i'm trying to feel my way into acting when i should just shut up and act. the feeling might not be there. in fact, the feeling will probably never be right where i want it. but until i start to act on my hopes, dreams and desires for myself, my family and the world, then i have no hope of ever feeling content. i have no hope of ever feeling like i am doing what i'm supposed to be doing.
we should always be striving for something. i don't think our search should ever be over. we should never be content and feel like we have done enough. we can be content with where we are in life, but never with how far we have made it. there is always more that can be done, and so my wish is not to simply be content. my struggles, desires and feeling will never stop. my wish is that i will do the right thing always.
i read that quote a few days ago and now i can't get it out of my head. the reason i can't get it out of my head is because i realized that most of my life i have tried to feel my way into acting. it happens with a variety of things. here are a few examples.
i really feel like my relationship with God would be better if i would just spend more time with him. for some reason, that desire hasn't turned into anything more than just that, a desire. i really feel like fighting poverty and helping the poor. to be honest, i haven't really done much in that area, even though i talk about how much i care about it all the time. i really feel like being a kind person. sounds simple enough, right? but everyday, i find myself glaring at the person who cut me off, ignoring someone i know needs help, taking out frustrations on my family...this list could go on for awhile, so i'll leave it there.
and the list of things that i feel like doing could also go on for a long time. there are so many things that i desire to do or ways that i wish to be, but for some reason, they just haven't happened. i say "for some reason" but i really know the reason. the reason is because i just don't do them. i just don't spend time with God. i just don't help the poor as much as i should. i just decide not to be kind to people on a regualr basis.
what does this mean? does it mean that those things aren't really that important to me? i've been kind of scared that that is the case lately. if i really cared about these things, God, the world, my relationships...then they would all be incredible and amazing and i wouldn't have to feel this way anymore because i would have them and my search would be over. but i don't really think that's true. i don't think it means i don't care about them. i think it means i'm lazy. i think it means i'm selfish. i think it means i'm angry. i can still want to be or do something but suck at it. so the problem isn't that i don't really care about these things (and trust me, those things i mentioned were only the first three out of a thousand i could have written). the problem is that i won't act. i'm trying to feel my way into acting when i should just shut up and act. the feeling might not be there. in fact, the feeling will probably never be right where i want it. but until i start to act on my hopes, dreams and desires for myself, my family and the world, then i have no hope of ever feeling content. i have no hope of ever feeling like i am doing what i'm supposed to be doing.
we should always be striving for something. i don't think our search should ever be over. we should never be content and feel like we have done enough. we can be content with where we are in life, but never with how far we have made it. there is always more that can be done, and so my wish is not to simply be content. my struggles, desires and feeling will never stop. my wish is that i will do the right thing always.
posted by xblairx @ 10:06 AM
8 Comments:
At 1:50 PM ,
chelsey said...
i read something similar to that statement in "a long obedience in the same direction". i can't remember it exactly because it's been a few months since i read it, but i think he talks about our tendency to wait until we feel like acting. but he says that we need to act, even when we don't feel like it, until we DO feel like it. a fake it until you make it kind of thing. i know that sounds a little brutal, "faking it", but really, if deep down you do care about something but don't really feel like doing it, forcing yourself to act isn't the same as pretending to care just for show. i think i'm making sense, but maybe only to myself...
At 2:27 PM ,
Keri M. Valdez said...
Chels you totally make sense, I think.. I speak your language. And Blair, everything you said just blew me away.. It's totally true that we feel we wanna do something, but it's totally up to us to make it happen. That was really inspiring, so thanks Blair and Chels..:) Love you both!
At 5:15 PM ,
dave said...
do you have a scriptural reference to back this up?
At 7:53 AM ,
John, Angie and the kiddos said...
Well said Blair.
I totally agree.
John
At 4:58 PM ,
Ryan said...
do you have a Grudem reference to back this up?
At 10:35 AM ,
Anonymous said...
Great thoughts Blair! You stepped on my toes! Way to go! Actually, I think it is alot like our relationship with our spouse, love is a choice, even though our feelings are a part of who we are, it is our choices that give clear direction and we must CHOOSE to love, not just respond to how we feel. Many in the world act on their feelings and then choose to leave their marriages and their Lord! We must act better than we feel in response to our family and especially in response to our God. Interesting discussion! I love you SON! Mom in Dauphin
At 4:04 PM ,
Anonymous said...
Hey Blair,
I think it makes sense that we need to "do" even when we don't want to. I can't see Jesus jumping out of bed with a hoot 'n holler knowing his day would be full of crushing needy crowds, but he went anyway.
However, there is something I’ve been thinking about these past few months. We always hold our lives and what we do up against what people of the Bible did; like Jesus and Paul. And I believe we are slowly become Christ-like and there is unlimited potential. But try and picture the kind of life Jesus lived the 30 years before he went public. Try to picture the kind of life Paul would live when he went back to his hometown community when he was on holidays. How would they live in a community, instead of their actions in response to visiting numerous communities? See what I mean.
Brian
At 6:44 AM ,
Anonymous said...
Blair,
I read this last night from "The Irresistible Revolution" by Shane Claiborne.
"As Mother Teresa would say, 'We are called not to be successful but to be faithful.' That sounds good, but it was the beginning of my years of struggle with the tension between efficiency and faithfulness. I remembered Gandhi's saying that what we are doing may seem insignificant, but it is most important that we do it. So we did.
While the temptation to do great things is always before us, in Khalighat I learned the discipline of doing small things with great deliberation. Mother Teresa used to say, 'We can do no great things, just small things with great love. It is not how much you do, but how much love you put into doing it.'
a few pages later...
"But what had lasting significance were not the miracles themselves but Jesus' love. Jesus raised his friend Lazarus from the dead, and a few years later, Lazarus died again. Jesus healed the sick, but they eventually caught some other disease. He fed the thousands, and the next day they were hungry again. But we remember his love. It wasn't that Jesus healed a leper but that he touched a leper, because no one touched lepers. And the incredible thing about that love is that it now lives inside of us."
sorry for the length
Brian
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