How to Avoid an Information Superhighway Crash
I got my feels wound up.
I released the frustration and hurt through the keyboard.
By the second draft in, I had a better understanding of what I almost got tangled in.
What started as part of the social noise became an opportunity to breathe peace.
Have Your Feels Ever Taken the Wheel?
My feels are all wound up right now.
People are yelling and screaming and pointing
Driven by emotions
And emotions are horrible drivers. It’s like they WANT to put us in a ditch.
The other day I let emotions take the wheel
(when I KNEW Jesus would be a better pilot)
and … full confession … I brake-checked someone.
FORTUNATELY nobody ended up in a ditch …
That day.
The roads are bad enough,
But the information superhighway is chaotically crazy.
The recent increase in AI-created content hasn’t helped me. Half the time, I’m not sure if what I’m reading is real, Memorex, or completely made up.
They MIGHT disclose that it’s AI … but only after I’m invested in the heart.
FEELINGS ….
Whoa
Whoa
Whoa
FEELINGS!
Are we in a place right now where we’d rather be right in our feelings than correct in the facts?
Two seconds of emotion-driven video, and everyone is storming the castle or grabbing pitchforks to hunt down the monster.
Whatever you do, don’t try to show them facts.
Facts … we don’t need no stinkin’ facts.
Or, as my dad always said, “Don’t confuse my feelings with your facts.”
Distracted by the Facts
I’m reminded of a conversation I had with a friend many years ago. We were discussing something in Scripture. She said, “I don’t think it says that.”
I opened a Bible to the Scripture referenced and showed it to her.
My friend read what I shared, pushed the Bible back across the table, looked me directly in the eyes and said, “it says that, but that’s not what it means.”
Last week I took one day off from digital. The fast comforted my heart and soothed my spirit.
It hasn’t been a week, and the amount of denial and demands to conform has overloaded me.
And it’s got my feels all stirred up.
What do you do when their feelings stir up your feels and the facts no longer have relevance? How can you get to a place of truth over feelings?
- BREATHE … if you pump the breaths before you release the emotions, you can usually avoid the mass pile-up.
- Ask Jesus to take the wheel … a.k.a. pray. If I invest my time and energy in prayer and seek peace before taking action… I probably won’t be taking action (or what action I do take will be a horse of a different color).
- Let their feels go … I don’t have to pick them up. I don’t have to get invested in them. And – biggest shock of all – I don’t have to make them understand. (Turns out God’s got this, too).
When the feels get too much and the noise gets too loud, what are your tips for leaning into “peace, be still”?
