How We Feel Shapes the Way We Think

There’s an old story told of a father who left his dime store to his two sons in his last will and testament. After a terrible fight the brothers split the dime store, became competitors in the same town, and stopped speaking to one another for twenty years. The fight was over the misplacement of a one dollar bill.

After twenty years of fighting, a well dressed man entered one of the dime stores telling a story of how twenty years ago he stole a dollar and he’d now come to repay his debt. In tears the one brother takes the man across town to his competing brother’s store asking him to tell his brother the same story.

With tears in their eyes, thanks to the honesty of this well-dressed man, the two brothers reconciled.[1]

This story sets in bold the dynamics that are always at work in our world. We never approach a situation, a relationship, or a conversation with full neutrality. We invariably bring with us certain images or emotional predispositions and these factors shape us in ways that go beyond our near comprehension.

For example, somewhere, deep inside the younger brother, was a shadow of suspicion that he could not let go of and this is what caused him to become bitter rivals with his brother for twenty years.

Underneath our actions are emotional images that we bring with us into every situation. How we feel about things shapes the way we think of things. I would have a much worse time watching the Patriots play than I would the Titans for I have negative images about the Patriots and they color how I react to football. How we feel about things shapes the way we think of things.

This is especially true with our relationship to God.

Down underneath our subconscious lies an image we give to what we believe God is doing in the world. And we carry this image with us.
  • Is God for us or against us?
  • Is God a father or a foe?
  • Did God kill your mother, baby, or dog?
  • Did God give you cancer, AIDS, or terrible parents?
  • Did God cause the natural disaster?
  • Did God send your son to war?
  • Did God keep you from furthering your career or cause you to suffer from an addiction?
We all have images of God.

I think this is why John, when writing his gospel, words 1:29 the way he does. He anticipates the hostility listeners/readers would have with their images of God. That’s why he says, “Jesus is the lamb of God who comes to take away the sins of the world.”

Jesus does for us what the well dressed stranger did for the dime store brothers. He casts new light about an event that has been misinterpreted and thus gotten everything crossed up, and this retelling opens the door for reconciliation to occur. Jesus (as the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world) retells God's story, and to as many as believe him, he offers the gift of healing.

Maybe it's time we Christians re-author our image of God.
[1] Story taken from a John Claypool sermon

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