Yanking the Wires
Theme for the Week: Unstuffing Our Emotions
Gordon MacDonald
Tuesday, October 16, 2001
 1 of 1
Key Bible Verse: Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?.
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him (Psalm 42: 9, 11).
Bonus Reading: Psalm 42:6-11
I had a conversation with a woman whose husband holds an extremely high-profile position in the world of business. His name would be known to much of the public if I mentioned it.
She speaks of the pressure he is under at his work. Every symptom of his behavior suggests fear that he is not making the grade, exhaustion because of inhuman demands, and rage because he is not in control of his life. But he cannot bring himself to deal with these realities. Like someone who is irritated by the message of the idiot lights on the dashboard and pulls out the wire that connected them with the engine, he has turned off all of his feelings. He refuses to acknowledge their veracity. And now only one emotion is left: rage. His anger can erupt over the silliest issues while he can remain impassive over the most significant matters. And he doesn't understand, nor does he want to understand, what is going on in his inner world.
His emotional tachometer suggests that he is, as we say, "redlined." Engines burn out when the needle stays too long over the red line. And so will we.
Gordon MacDonald in When Men Think Private Thoughts My Response:
I recognize that I've been ignoring emotional warning signs when it comes to .
Thought to Apply:
The facts, Ma'am, just the facts.
Sergeant Joe Friday (in the '60s TV program Dragnet)
Adapted from: When Men Think Private Thoughts (Nelson, 1996) with permission.
For your convenience, When Men Think Private Thoughts is available in the ChristianityToday.com bookstore.
Copyright © 2001 by the author or Christianity Today, Inc./Men of Integrity magazine.
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Lord, let me grow to be—like David and Jonathan—a whole man: physically and mentally strong, emotionally expressive.
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