“I Feel Like”

Yesterday I drove to my mother's house in Jackson to give her and my sister a ride to the airport. 

By the time I got there, they were packed and ready to go. My sister's carry-on weighed about 50 pounds. I told her to find the strongest flight attendant and ask for help holding it above her seat. 

We drove through Starbucks, and Mom insisted on filling up my caffeine and fuel tanks. 

As we approached Detroit Metro, the topic turned towards a specific doctrine we each held. We all strongly disagreed. Conversations about doctrine are hard to have. 

I noticed something: we were all defensive of our positions and defended ourselves from an emotional point of view. Meaning our defense would start with something like “I feel” 

I don’t know about you, but my feelings are all over the map. I feel strongly about some things, but my feelings may be contrary to what scripture teaches. So, beginning with arguments based on emotions is not a great place to begin. 

If you want a strong doctrine to hold its weight, you must form your opinions around something more substantial than your feelings. 

Let me be clear: When we build our doctrine around emotions instead of scripture, we set ourselves up for all sorts of problems. People will recognize that we don’t believe in anything bigger than our religious tradition.

In our culture, people are hungry for truth and flock to things that feel transcendent or religious, but are only empty religious traditions. 

We should offer a doctrine based on scripture to our church and culture, which are desperate for the truth.

May I make a suggestion? The next time you are having an argument about doctrine, don’t say “I feel”; instead, try something like “What do the scriptures have to say?”

Bless You. 

• Pastor