"Feelings are Not Facts"

I remember being baffled the first time I heard it. "Feelings are not facts, " she said. I just stood quizzically staring at her. "what?" "Just because you feel something, doesn't make it true," she explained. I still didn't get it. I was new at "feelings", and I knew very little about "Truth"...

She went on to explain with the example of feeling alone. Back then, I often felt alone. I was living by myself, with two cats and two dogs. There were no kids underfoot. There was an on-again-off-again relationship, and a fledgling relationship with God.

I "got" that - I understood feeling "alone". "Now," she said, "are you REALLY alone?" I stared back at her, silent. "Really, truly, are you alone? No, you can call me for one..." We went on to list the people in my life that knew, loved and supported me.

For a while, I did something that seems ridiculous now, but was so necessary then. When I had a feeling I didn't know how to process, I'd call her and we'd talk through it. It was a gift. The most amazing gift.

Many, many years later, feelings still try to control my life and my actions from time to time. I can't call my friend anymore, but I can recall what He has said to me. When I feel alone, I can speak the truth into it:

"Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." Hebrews 13:5

"Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me." John 16:32

"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for you are with me;
your rod and your staff, they comfort me. "
~~ Psalm 23:4

Feelings are not facts. May I hold fast to the Truth.