Seriously, I know there are some of you who are off the chart in the Sensing category on the Myers-Briggs, and you need hard-core black and white to make your decisions, but I truly believe God has given us a “gut” to warn us when we’re going to make a mistake.
Of course the problem is recognizing what is truly a gut feeling as opposed to just a desire from deep within. Sometimes the desire can be so strong, you can fool yourself into believing it must be the right thing to do. For me, though, when I’m honest with myself… I know the difference. The gut feeling is there telling me which way to go, what decision to make, who to spend or not spend time with, what projects really deserve my attention when I’m overwhelmed… etc, etc, etc.
If you’re slightly intuitive, you’ve picked up on the fact that I’ve gotten burned again by not trusting my gut. Now sorting out the mess brings a lot more stress and trouble then having the courage to trust my intuition… even if I didn’t have all the right “reasons” worked out. Having a deep-seded feeling that something is not going to go well is probably enough to put the brakes on, no matter how many reasons others can give you as to whether you should or shoult not do something.
I know some of you are thinking this is just mushy-mushy subjective thinking. I’m not saying to trust any feeling whatsoever, but to try to tune yourself into that God-given warning signal I believe all of us have. When that warning signal flares, take heed. Or you’ll wind up with a mess much greater than making a difficult decision based just on a feeling…
I agree with you. After tasting the fruit of paying attention to and not paying attention to “gut feelings”, “instincts”, or what ever else we want to call them, my conclussion is we can trust our instincts. I believe them to be God given and unless we are very wounded or hardened from life they can keep us out of trouble and help in decision making.
Jim Logan
May 26th, 2005