We must recognize the fact that we place different values on different aspects of life.  One person places value on health, wealth, success and a thousand other outcomes while others will consider quite different goals as more valuable.  The value we attach to various goals then affects which choices we make and what actions we take.  The power of these values often exerts their power through what we think and how we feel.  These determining values arise from a number of sources including our nature’s genetic tendencies and our nurture from socialization by parents, peers, and others around us.  Beyond nature and nurture which has been debated for decades by scientists, we also have the spiritual influence through our faith influencing what we value.  The fruit of our life will depend to a overwhelming degree on these values, yet we are not trapped by the forces of nature and nurture without opportunity to change what values we pursue in the future.  We are able to shape our values and mold them more in line with truth we discover throughout life, and this produces even more good fruit than earlier in life.

                In our world, filled with variety across the globe, different values are placed on different virtues and vices from culture to culture.  American culture values liberty and hard work along with individualism in general.  Eastern culture from Asian tends towards placing more value on conformity and family connection.  Yet other cultures vary in whether they prize strength over wisdom or vice versa.  Even within a relatively homogenous culture, different individuals place different values on different goals of life with some aiming for long life regardless of the life’s contents, others aiming for power regardless of its adverse effects on relationships, and still others aiming for pleasure without regard for the risk to life required.  The decisions come down to not just what someone wants, but what one considers important and values the most.  Faced with the human limitations of not being able have it all, we must choose which values we can pursue bearing in mind our time available and resources at our disposal. 

                The values we hold more intensely lead to feelings or emotions towards the different options available.  Valuing something but not yet having it leads to desire or disappointment while devaluing something else may not only lead to neglect but even to dislike or disdain of that value.  Beyond disappointment in not achieving something valued highly, resentment may also arise when the inability to attain continues or jealousy may arise when another is seen to attain what you cannot.  Anger and despair may take root in the feelings of the one who cannot attain what they highly value.  Ultimately these emotions drive the one under them towards different actions because they value something.

                As mentioned, such influencing values arise from many sources throughout our lives.  As created humans we are born with innate needs like for food, and we place high value on such basic needs because meeting such a need not only satisfies a growling stomach but also because it provides energy to pursue other needs and values.  Similarly, we value work because it produces not only food, but meets other bodily and mental needs and we value relationships not only because they enable us to meet bodily needs like food, but we were actually designed for relationships by our creator (Genesis in the creation of Adam needing Eve).  Besides these innate needs shared by humanity, our genetics nudge us in different directions in how we fulfill these needs.  Each person lives with different genetics which give different degrees of pleasure to different tastes of food, which give different degrees of pleasure from different types of work, and which give different measures of joy from different types, depths, and total number of relationships. 

                These inborn needs and drives of genetic nature are then further molded and shaped by one’s life experiences.  As children, our parents’ habits of daily life and their values shape our values for we learn much about what to value from them.  The depth and quality of our relationships with them will then affect whether we reflect their values or intentionally seek after different values.  Regardless, we watch them and learn what is important from them such that our family culture profoundly shapes what we are like later in life.  Despite this substantial influence we still have choices in the matter of what we value. 

                As we grow and our identity forms its own self, we begin to choose which values of early life and family culture to continue and which to diminish.  As noted, we may choose to reflect similar values to our parents, or we may adapt or even completely reject what we were taught to value.  As we mature in our lives, we have ongoing opportunities to alter values further and further, but such alterations require that we replace the rejected values with stronger and more desirable values in their places.  As we mature, the value of a longer life without disability may overcome the value of the thrilling experience like parachuting or fast cars.  Likewise, the value of security and stability may overcome the prior value of independence and freedom from relational ties.  Similarly, the value of remaining healthy may overcome the value of pleasure stimulating foods which, over time, harm one’s health.

                Ultimately, we are not controlled by our values in the sense that we can consciously alter them over time.  They do, however, shape our habits, our hungers, and our hopes whether they are directed at good things and true things or directed at the bad or the false.  Molding the innate drives and the socialization of childhood to strive after the values of our Creator will bear more good fruit than simply striving after our bodily hungers or following our family patterns.  Consciously molding our values according to the good of God’s design allows us to pursue that which will most fulfill our fleeting lives on this earth and prepare us for the life to come in eternity.

Next in this series… The Effects of Trauma on Thoughts and Feelings

              Though we may often feel the weight of our feelings bearing down on us, our basic beliefs about reality also press their weight upon us while serving as the foundation upon which our thoughts and feelings operate.  Often, we may refer to this collection of beliefs as a worldview which more or less means our overarching understanding of what is reality.  Because these views of the world or reality press upon us so often and so heavily, a self-awareness of their nature provides insight into how they are affecting our daily lives.  We can ask ourselves some preliminary questions about our worldviews such as the following.  Do we view the sum or reality as solely material or as solely supernatural or some combination of the two?  Do we view the sum of reality as primary good or bad or balanced? Do we view the sum of reality as controllable, out of our control, or somewhere in between? Do we view the sum of reality as having a goal or just purposeless? More could be flushed out, but each of these perspectives influence the thoughts and feelings which come from us and press upon us.  Therefore, our view of reality, or worldview, although acting as a foundation of life, does weigh profoundly upon all we think and feel.

              Defining a worldview beyond the tautology of it being a view of the world seems redundant, yet pressing into this concept offers us opportunities to grow.  As an interdependent convergence of views about the reality we experience, it serves as the foundation for which we base all other decisions.  It ultimately describes what we believe is “real”.  While we may be wrong or delusional about a belief and act contrary to reality, we do so because of a belief about reality as we will rarely if ever act based on something we do not believe is “real”. Although, to be fair, we have feelings about much which is not “real” such as stories, whether in books, movies, songs, or told by others that can make us feel strongly though such stories are nothing more than stories.  Even in this situation, the lasting feelings are built upon what we believe to be true and this worldview serves as an operational framework or starting point.

              In evaluating our own worldview, we begin with asking “in what type of reality do we ultimately exist?”  We appear to live, walk, breath, and relate in a physical world, but almost universally we are confronted with the question whether there is more to reality than what the physical senses perceive.  Across time and space, most not only ask but also believe that there is more to reality than what our senses perceive.  Rather than referring to a microscopic world beyond our eyes, we inquire about the presence of a spiritual or supernatural reality outside of our normal senses.  Gods, goddesses, spirits, and vague “forces” have been imagined, forged, feared, and worshipped. Some in the past and even today actually imagine our physical world to be only an illusion hiding the actual true reality of spirit somehow underneath.  One’s belief of whether we are operating in a physical world or something more or something else will determine one’s action in that assumed reality.  Believing that all is material without a spiritual aspect will minimize that power of moral persuasion from a higher rule of life.  Your resulting thoughts and feelings about reality will be different.  On the other hand, believing that a spiritual world lies beyond our senses, especially if one believes that a God resides within that spiritual realm judging your life in the physical, will greatly influence your behaviors as well as your thoughts and feelings.  Believing that fulfillment of life lies beyond a real or illusory physical world may diminish the value of the surrounding world.  One may think of it less, giving it less value, having different feelings towards it.  Given the considerable contrasting natures of these views and other myriad similar examples, not all of these views can be true. 

              Beyond the distinctions between different views of physical versus spiritual reality, there lies the ethical questions of whether there is a true right or wrong, a good or bad, and how might we distinguish between them.  Whether or not we believe in a spiritual reality leads to such questions of right and wrong.  If reality is nothing more than the physical, on what do we base morality? In such a situation, morality comes down to the power or authority within the physical reality with those in power determining what is right or wrong for others, a morality which changes based on who is in power.  If reality includes a spiritual dimension, the contents of that spiritual dimension play a role in our experience of right and wrong depending on whether or not the spiritual reality includes a power or authority over us in the physical realm.  One should learn whether or not something is owed to that spiritual power and if consequences may come from crossing the will of that power or authority.  We see the continued question of where ultimate power and authority rests though no longer in the hands of men.  From another perspective, if the physical serves only as an illusion, does anything really matter here except a potential higher good of aiming to escape the physical to enter solely the spiritual?  We will live life differently based on our specific answers to these questions.

               One more step in understanding our worldview then touches on whether we believe that our “being and doing” even matters.  Whether perceived as spiritual or physical reality, could we be at the mercy and whim of determining forces beyond our influence, or do we play a role in the march of reality towards an end?  In a physical world without spiritual reality, we may or may not view ourselves as being “in control”.  In a smaller scope, we may take pride in controlling and thinking that control is a necessity or virtue.  In a wider scope of life, it becomes more difficult to hold onto the belief that we have control.  Daily we are faced with physical limits that deny the possibility of ultimate control over life.  In such a world we will think about survival through controlling what we can around us including nature and even other people with whom we interact.  We will feel unavoidable anxiety when that control is threatened or hindered, maybe even anger. 

              In a world where the spiritual is believed to exist and which stands above the physical, we will approach life differently as we ponder what may lie beyond our physical senses.  Many over the centuries have conjured pictures of deities and spiritual powers which demanded their attention or their obedience or their worship.  If we believe in such spiritual powers, our thoughts and feelings will focus on how to influence or worship such powers.  Our feelings will then reflect on whether or not we believe that we have appeased such powers adequately to provide for our well-being.  If our view of such powers is one of their being inconsolable or beyond our ability to influence positively, we may either throw our hands up with a “que sera, sera” feeling hopeless.

              Building another layer of understanding regarding our worldview, we must ask if there is a point to all of this, is there a purpose to life?  Whether viewed from the standpoint of individual effort or the collective effort of humanity, are there goals at which the one or the many should aim?  The reality and recognition of purpose will draw one’s attention to the goal whereas an absence can leave one to wander about without consistency in thoughts and feelings about reality.  Lack of purpose may lead to despair or a sense of lostness.  On the other hand, fear may arise from believing in a purpose that one views as unattainable.  In the middle lies the possibility of hope leading to diligence from a purpose viewed as achievable.  However, even the emotionally pragmatic view of an attainable hope serves no one if it does not match reality.  The most productive purpose is one which conforms to the physical and spiritual reality in which we live and breath, a purpose for us which comes from beyond us.

              Our view of reality, as a foundation for life, weighs heavily on all we think and feel.  What we believe is ”real” underlies and influences all that we think, how we think and what comes out of our hearts through our feelings.  If what we believe is not true of reality, our thinking and feeling will be off, leading to bad fruit in life no matter how sincere our thinking and feeling might be.  On the other hand, if we have a true view of reality, we have much more hope of living fruitfully and joyfully.  Therefore, our worldview matters and weighs upon all of life so that its formation calls for diligent effort in seeking out the true view of the world. 

 Next in this series… The Impact of Values on Our Thoughts and Feelings

                Knowing and applying truth individually or collectively sounds so simple if we were already whole beings with healthy hearts and healthy minds working in healthy bodies, producing such fruit as can only be found in heaven.  Reality hits us with the fact that we live in a fallen world where the Fall of Adam and Eve left us with several shortcomings.  The Fall distorts our hearts to desire the “not good” (Romans 7:7-25 and many others).  The Fall distorts our minds to not clearly think and reason the “good” (Romans 3:9-20 and 7:7-25).  The Fall presses limitations and illnesses upon our bodies (Romans 5:12).  The Fall works through other fallen humans to exacerbate the adverse effects (Romans 2 and 3).  The heart, then mind, and the body do not function alone, but inter-relate and interact in interdependent ways.  With this interdependency of fallen beings we must face the reality of broken hearts, bent minds, and their consequences. 

                While the reality of a fallen world seems self-evident to a discerning Christian, the reality deserves attention and explanation.  If one does not accept the Bible as a source of truth, they must find other explanation for reality in one or more other options.  Some believe random chance or fate created order out of chaos to produce today’s reality.  Often these groups also look to the survival of the fittest, basing today’s reality on what best overcomes the challenges of the universe over time.  Some deny reality as being only an illusion, maybe a dream in the mind of some being or the baser reflection of an unseen spiritual reality.  Some find meaning in reality and some do not.  In reality, our fallen world is only known correctly through the revealed truth from a God who revealed and continues to reveal.  Attempting to work out another explanatory system is as futile as the above absurd counter-examples illustrate.

                We live with the reality of possessing desires of the heart which may or may not correspond with this revealed Biblical reality.  The Fall distorted our hearts to desire that which is other than the good of this revelation.  The Fall began with mankind wanting to be in control instead of submitting unquestionably to God’s Word and the resulting consequences included change in the original desires between husband and wife creating strife in that relationship.  Not only were Adam and Even aware of sin in a way not experienced before, they had a desire to sin.  They became self-focused rather than God-focused or other-focused.  They rebelled against God’s good.  “Not good” is still not good even if we like it, even if we desire it, as we are not the standard of what is “good”.

                We also live in the reality of minds whose functioning was distorted to not think and reason the “good”.  When unchecked by God, desires of the heart drove decisions away from the “good”, as minds began to rationalize such deviations, allowing the pursuit of the “not good”.  The unchecked mind of man degraded to a more foolish functioning pattern, further from the truth and its pursuit.  The mind became more and more unable to even recognize truth and thus becomes more animal like as it ventured further from God.  Such “bent minds” cannot see straight even when it stands in front of their eyes.

                Our bodies then function with these broken hearts and bent minds, with our bodies own weaknesses pulling us away from being able to feel and to think rightly.  The bodies further distort reality and the pursuit of good especially when illness of those bodies influences how one feels and how one thinks.  Several examples bring this into sharp focus.  When one experiences a simple flu virus infection, the brain slows, one’s joy is dulled, frustration of being sick presses down, often leading to irritability or sadness. This results from chemical and metabolic changes in the body and brain. When one suffers a broken bone, inflammation from the injury affects the brain’s feelings and thoughts drawing attention to the injury and its interference with life.  In these and other cases, suffering draws attention to the suffering and away from seeking or enjoying the “good”. 

This is not a one-way street however in which the body does all the effect without receiving from the heart and mind.  Broken hearts and bent minds may disrupt the body as well.  Emotional trauma amplifies the body’s experience of disease severity.  Emotional suffering may even trigger bodily symptoms of pain, fatigue, and Gi distress.  The thinking of bent minds may trigger more brokenness of heart. All of this may spiral out of control with these interrelationships of heart, mind, and body. 

                Wholeness of life requires wholeness of the interrelated parts.  Heart, mind, and body must work together to produce shalom which is more than an absence of illness and suffering.  Shalom stands out further as the positive presence of wellness across the whole person.  Brokenness of the Fall hinders such shalom in how it affects our entire being, not just the spirit and guilt of sin.  Restoration from brokenness to wholeness of shalom will require attention to all of these factors and their interactions. 

Next in this series… The Weight of Beliefs “Below” Our Thoughts and Feelings.

                The philosophers can debate ad nauseum whether we are primarily thinkers or feelers, with modernity leaning more and more towards feelers, but ultimately the two cannot be separated in our daily lives.  Yes, we may follow one more strongly at one time or the other.  Yes, we may intentionally suppress feelings to be stoics or thoughts in order to set us free.  Ultimately, we must think about our feelings and recognize that our thoughts are influenced by our feelings.  Furthermore, each day and situation varies which of these influences sits in the driver’s seat for our choices. Understanding these influences and connections can help us live life more fruitfully and more confidently. 

                Head or heart, which one we follow changes from day to day.  This makes some sense anatomically as we examine the brain and its functions.  Our frontal lobes just over our eyes contain the decision-making portion of our brains where executive processing or the weight of facts against each other lead to choices and actions.  Were this the only input, it would be almost computational, but the frontal lobes must then transmit their output to the brainstem and other portions of the brain in order to carry out the determined choices.

                The nerve pathway from the frontal lobe passes through the limbic system, our center of emotions, thus crossing the working out of logic with the processing of emotional input in this intersection.  While this is somewhat oversimplified, practically, this is what occurs.  In this limbic system area, emotions are processed and both the input to the frontal lobes and the output from it are colored by these emotions.  The intensity of the emotional colors, whether for good or for bad, influence the decisions of the frontal lobes.  The intensity can be so great that one feels like their emotions are even overriding logic.  One can act as if the emotions are the primary driver.

                Practically speaking, both logic and emotional coloring influence what message of decision reaches the action centers of our brains.  In any given situation, the contribution of logic or emotion may vary.  At times, the emotions of that actual decision may exert greater influence from itself or from memories of past similar decisions and incidents.  The decision at hand may manifest emotions from the prior circumstances either consciously or unconsciously.  For example, one’s response to an employer giving negative feedback on job performance could consciously or unconsciously bring up feelings of childhood when a parent or a teacher had scolded one for misbehavior.  One may or may not connect the present response’s intensity of feelings to that memory of childhood shame or embarrassment.

                At other times, the logic of the frontal lobes may circumscribe the emotions, preventing their influence upon a decision.  One may resort simply and solely to cold facts without allowing emotional influence to alter one’s course.  Some individuals are more natural at doing this while others have great difficulty in doing this.  Such variability in restraining one’s emotions depends on differences in temperament, biology, and past life factors like trauma.  The situation of the decision at hand also influences how non-emotional one can be for that decision as some decisions may trigger no past emotions, while others resurface many emotions.  In general, the more one is self-aware, recognizing and acknowledging the sources of emotional responses to a given decision, the more one can balance logic and emotions when making a decision.

                Considering the anatomical crossing of our logical frontal lobes with our emotional limbic system, we are therefore wired to add emotions to our thinking and to think about how we feel.  We may vacillate between the two but never completely separate out one from the other unless some physical damage occurs to these brain regions impairing one or the other.  The wiring of our brains makes this reality unavoidable.  This makes sense when considered as both aspects of our being are necessary.  While factual perception and logical reasoning are necessary to correctly assess reality, emotional coloring reflects our values and subjective nature of relationships.  Living without either one makes us unbalanced within ourselves and with relationships of life. 

                With such dynamic variability, there would seem to be little hope of sure footing, yet reflection upon these influences and connections offers self-awareness that can help us live life more fruitfully and more confidently.  Such reflection and its resulting self-awareness can enable one to make conscious choices rather than succumbing to sub-conscious influences.  Lack of awareness whether logic or emotions are driving a decision creates a greater potential for unwanted decisions.  Even if one decides to base a decision on emotions, they should do so with conscious awareness of what they are doing.  The frontal lobes must oversee the process even if the weight of emotions ultimately determine the outcome. A future post will look at how to balance these aspects without letting one or the other run the show. 

                Next in the series… Broken Hearts and Bent Minds.

              Welcome to the “Heads and Hearts series. We live life deeper than physical reality as we are more than the sum of our physical parts.  More than just the biochemical synthesis of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and minerals, we are thinking and feeling beings.  We possess heads that think, remember, reason, and choose.  We have hearts, or spirits, that feel and sense beyond the physical.  Theologians and philosophers debate over the exact components and labels for these portions of our being, but cannot deny that we have both physical and spiritual contributions to our total being.  Some have well described mankind as embodied souls. 

              This aspect of being embodied souls arises from being created in the image of God.  We do more than process knowledge and more than practice with our hands, feet, and mouths.  We consider truths, actions of ourselves and of others, and in doing so we weigh things not just with logic, but with logic and emotions.  God’s breath ins within us and if born again, His spirit dwells within. 

              Our thinking and feeling move us.  Physically, the neurologic functions of our brain determine what we do.  From the nerves and their connections, we derive awareness of reality through the senses as processed by our minds.  From the same, we determine beliefs about that reality with minds making sense of reality organizing our sense’s reports.  From the same, we determine emotional responses in relation to our values and in relation to effects of reality on us. Still there is something beyond computations and chemicals as we are alive and conscious. 

               We can know truth and practice truth yet betray truth with our thoughts and feelings.  The “Docsy”/”Doxy” provides a foundation for beliefs, laws of reality, and the oughts of morality.  The “Prac-sy”/”Praxy” reflects the interplay between the “Docsy” working out what lives in one’s head and heart, pushing our pracsy through the will.  “Prac-sy” will reflect head and heart but may be distorted when the head is mistaken or when the heart is driven against head and “Doc-sy”. 

              We may have broken thoughts or broken feelings.  As we work through this series on “Heads and Hearts” we will work through:

• How head and heart interact
• Examples of broken hearts and bent minds
• How social media influences
• How our beliefs affect thoughts and feelings
• How our values affect thoughts and feelings
• How a history of trauma influences life
• Why we are broken in the modern world
• God’s original intent for thoughts and feelings
• And More

Next in this series … Interplay Between Heads and Hearts