Latest / Rooted & Real With Keenan / Building Your Life on Truth
Transcript
- Keenan: Hey y'all. Welcome back to Root and Real with me, Keenan, where we have real conversations about faith, mental health, relationships, and becoming healthier people, both emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. I guess three. Today I want to talk to you about something that sounds simple. More specifically, what are you building your life on? Because every one of us is building on something, whether we realize it or not. We are building our decisions on something. We build relationships on something. We build our understanding of ourselves on something. We build our expectations for the future on something. And sometimes without realizing it, we build our lives on what we feel. Rather than what is actually true. I feel like I'm failing. I feel like nobody cares about me. I feel like I'm behind. I feel like God has forgotten me. I feel like this situation is never gonna change. And here's the myth I want to challenge today. If I feel something strongly enough, it must be true. That simply is not true. Your feelings. are real. Your feelings, they matter. Your feelings give you information, but your feelings are not always accurate. And your feelings are not always accurate interpreters of reality. And that's where scripture gives us an incredibly powerful picture. Jesus talks about two people building houses. One builds on rock, the other builds on sand. You may have heard the story before. And eventually Both houses encounter a storm. The question isn't whether the storm comes. The question is this What happens to the house when it does? Matthew chapter seven, verses twenty four through twenty seven records Jesus saying that the person who hears his words and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain comes, the streams rise, the wind blows. The storm hits the house. But the house doesn't fall because its foundation is on rock. Jesus describes another person. This person hears his words, but doesn't put them into practice. Jesus compares that person to someone building a house on sand. Same rain, same rising water, same wind, different foundation. And the result is completely different. I think sometimes Christians unintentionally read this passage as if I follow Jesus, storms won't happen. That's not what Jesus says. Both houses experience the storm. That is important to keep in mind. Christian faith does not mean you won't experience anxiety. You won't experience depression. Your marriage won't struggle. Your kids won't struggle. People won't betray you. You won't lose someone you love. You won't experience financial problems. You won't have seasons when God feels distant. The difference isn't the absence of storms. The difference is what your life is standing on when the storms arrive. That's why truth matters so much. Because storms expose foundations. Psalms one gives us another picture. It describes the person who delights in God's instruction and mediates on it. He mediates on it consistently as being like a tree planted by streams of water. Think about that image. Roots, stability, nourishment, something deeper than what's happening on the surface. Colossians 2 uses similar language when Paul tells believers to be rooted and built up in Christ. There's something important happening throughout scripture. God repeatedly calls his people toward rootedness, not emotional numbness, not pretending like everything's okay, not ignoring reality, rootedness. And that matters. And that matters psychologically too. Because when we're emotionally overwhelmed, our minds can become incredibly convincing storytellers. Something happens when we interpret what happened. When that interpretation creates an emotional response. Like here's an example. You text somebody, they don't respond. That's the event. But your mind starts talking. They're upset with me. I did something wrong. They're ignoring me. Nobody actually wants me around. Now you're anxious. Now you're feeling it. But maybe you're angry. Maybe you send another text. Maybe you withdraw. Maybe you start replaying every interaction you've had with this person. But notice what happened. The emotional reaction wasn't based purely on the event, it was heavily influenced by the story you told yourself about. About the event. That's where CBT uses this idea of cognitive distortions. These are patterns of thinking that can cause us to interpret situations inaccurately. Maybe I'm mind reading. I know what they're thinking about me. Maybe I'm catastrophizing. This is going to be terrible. Maybe I'm using all or nothing thinking. If I don't succeed at this, I'm a complete failure. Maybe I'm overgeneralizing. This relationship failed. So relationships never work for me. And here's one thing I think is incredibly important. Emotional reasoning. Emotional reasoning says, but I because I feel it, it must be true. So let's do a quick exercise. Feelings versus truth. Finish this sentence. Right now, I feel like And maybe your answer is, I feel like I'm failing. Okay. Fair. Don't argue with that feeling. Don't shame yourself for having it. Instead, ask this what is actually true? Maybe the truth is I'm struggling in one area of my life that doesn't mean my entire life is a failure. So try another one. What's the feeling? I feel like nobody cares about me. Excuse me. I feel like nobody cares about me. Here's the truth. I'm feeling lonely right now. Loneliness is real, but loneliness doesn't prove that nobody cares about me. So here's another. Here's the feeling. I feel like God has abandoned me. Here's the truth. God feels distant to me right now. But scripture repeatedly tells us that God's presence isn't determined by whether I can emotionally sense him in them in this moment. So John 17, 17 says this: Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is the truth. Notice something important. We're not saying your emotions don't matter because the Bible says something different. That's not emotionally healthy Christianity. Instead, we're saying my emotions deserve to be heard. But they don't get the final vote on reality. That is a huge difference. You can acknowledge I'm scared without concluding. Therefore, I'm unsafe. You can acknowledge I'm discouraged without concluding. Therefore, there's no hope. You can acknowledge I feel like a failure without concluding. Therefore, I am a failure. Feelings are experiences. They aren't identities. And they aren't always facts. Imagine somebody comes into a counseling session and says something like this. I'm 35 years old. Everybody else is ahead of me. I should have accomplished more by now. I feel like I've wasted my life. There's a lot happening in that statement. There's comparison, there's should statements, there's this all or nothing thinking. There's emotional reasoning reasoning. It may be underneath all of it is fear. Fear that they're running out of time. Fear that they aren't enough. Fear that they missed God's plan. So instead of immediately saying, that's not true, we gotta get curious. Where did you learn what your life is supposed to look like by 35? Who established that timeline? Social media, your parents, your friends, your church, your own expectations? All questions you think of. But then ask this What evidence actually supports the belief that your life has been wasted? And eventually we bring scripture into the conversation too. What does God actually say about your worth? What does God say about his ability to redeem years that feel wasted? What does scripture say about comparison? What does scripture say about identity? Now we're doing something important. We're not using scripture to avoid the emotional experience. We're using truth to interpret the emotional experience more accurately. That's the difference between biblical truth and spiritual bypassing. Spiritual bypassing says stop feeling that. Just have faith. Healthy Biblical integration says this. Let's understand what you're feeling, examine what you're believing, and bring those beliefs into contact with truth. That is a much deeper process. Here's another challenge for Christians. Sometimes we say I'm standing on biblical truth, but what we actually mean is I'm standing on my own interpretation. Actually, those aren't automatically the same thing. That's why context matters. Humility matters. That's why we study the Bible. That's why studying the scriptures matter. That's why the whole council of scripture matters. Because we can find one verse, remove it from its context, and use it to reinforce something you already wanted to believe. That's not building on truth. That's using scripture to decorate the house you've already built. Jesus isn't inviting us to make scripture agree with us. He's inviting us to allow truth to reshape us. Sometimes scripture comforts us. Sometimes scripture confronts us. Sometimes scripture tells us you're loved. Sometimes scripture reminds us you're wrong. Sometimes scripture tells us to wait. Sometimes it tells us to move. Sometimes it says to challenge something our own culture believes in. And sometimes it challenges something we believe. If scripture only ever confirms what I already think, I probably need to ask whether I'm already allowing scripture to challenge me. So here's something practical you can do this week. When you find yourself emotionally overwhelmed, grab a notebook, grab a pad, yellow pad, open a notes app on your phone, and answer these questions. Number one. There's five questions. Number one, what happened? Describe the event. No interpretations yet. What actually happened? Number two, what am I telling myself about what happened? This is where I we identify the story. They don't respect me. I'm going to fail. God isn't listening. Nothing ever works out. Number three, what am I feeling? Name it. Anxious, angry, ashamed, lonely, rejected, confused. Number four, is my thought completely true? Look for cognitive distortions. Am I catastrophizing? Am I mind reading? Am I predicting the future? Thinking in absolutes. Reasoning entirely from emotion. And finally, number five, what truth do I need to stand on right now? That might be the Bible. It also might be observable facts. Sometimes the healthiest statement isn't everything is going to be okay. Because you don't actually know that. A more truthful statement might be I don't know what happens next, but I know I don't have to solve everything tonight. Or the situation is painful, but painful doesn't mean hopeless. Or I made a mistake, but one mistake doesn't define my entire identity. Or I'm afraid of what's coming, but fear cannot predict the future. That's what building on truth looks like in ordinary. So here's a question I want to leave you with. What are you building on? Now what do you say you believe? Not what you say you believe, not what verses you can quote. When the storm comes, what actually determines the way you think, react, and make decisions? Fear, comparison, other people's approval, your emotions, your past, or truth? Jesus never promised that building on the rock would prevent the storm. He promised something much more meaningful, a foundation capable of surviving it. So this week, when your emotions get loud, don't silence them. Listen to them. Name them. Understand them. And then ask, what is true? Because feelings matter, but feelings make terrible foundations. Build your life on something stronger. Build it on truth. This has been rooted and real with Keenan. Stay rooted, stay real, and I'll see you next time.