Mind and Emotion

Have you ever experienced that uncomfortable condition where your feelings and your thinking don't match?

The bailout stuff serves as one of those for me. The Democrats, for instance, are adamant that there be compensation limits for company leadership that gets bailed out. For me, this creates the dichotomy of which I speak. On one hand, I feel the problem. You have corporate leadership who fly their "plane" into the side of a mountain. As they close on the certain collision, they are handed a "golden parachute", a hearty "thank you" for their good work and a large sum of money so that, even though everyone else goes down, at least they can land safely. No! It feels wrong! My mind, on the other hand, is back-pedaling. "Are you sure you want your government deciding who gets paid what?"

I get this in lots of places. I can feel the outrage over oil companies making big bucks because of market forces while we're all struggling to pay for their gasoline, knowing at the same time that I don't want the government to nationalize or penalize companies because they make money. I can feel the difficulties that people face with low income and no spouse and mouths to feed while struggling myself with the realization that simply handing them cash isn't the best way to help them. I can see in my mind the grand majesty of God's sovereignty and the comfort that provides, knowing that a parent who lost a child isn't immediately going to feel that "grand" because of God's sovereignty.

Someone once said, "If you're not a liberal by the time you're 25, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative by the time you're 40, you have no brains." I understand that. Feelings and thought are often in conflict. The question becomes, "Which one will rule your decisions?"