Decision-making is almost always emotional, and this is especially true with people who choose to follow Jesus.
When people make decisions, most of the time they make emotional decisions. They only make purely intellectual decisions under these circumstances:
- In the past, emotional decision-making has had horrible results, so they try to eliminate emotions from their decision-making process.
- They honestly don’t care which choice they make, so an intellectual choice will do.
And then there’s the self-delusional fun we can have with the emotional choice that appears to be an intellectual one—the emotional choice that’s backed up with a lot of intellectual reasons, but deep down is based on emotions. You’ve seen it before, especially in politics. “I chose that candidate because she’s a very moral person, and she wants what’s best for her community. So she was the only logical choice.” Never mind the fact that morals are emotional factors; after all, immoral people (no matter your standard of morals) are evil. And no one is morally ambiguous towards evil.
The dopey bit is when we’re trying to talk to people about Jesus and we engage them in intellectual arguments in favor of our position. Apologetics fans are particularly fond of the intellectual argument. There’s Thomas Aquinas’ seven logical proofs of God’s existence (all of which I know how to refute); there’s Pascal’s wager; there are the Four Spiritual Laws; and when in doubt quote scripture at someone (never mind the fact that scripture is not an authority figure to the pagan; plus the Appeal to Authority is a logical fallacy). They don’t consider the fact that if a person can be argued into the kingdom, they can just as easily be argued out of it with a better argument. And atheists sometimes have better arguments.
No; ultimately the decision for Jesus is an emotional one. As it should be. We can grudgingly accept an intellectual decision, but you’re gonna have the darndest time prying a person away from an emotional one. Ever tried to tell people that they’re dating someone who’s totally wrong for them? Ever been that person? You see what I mean.
“But what about when the euphoria wears off?” Well, I’ll compare it to a dating relationship again. Ever known people who got married and then the euphoria wore off? But by that time, they were married and knew their spouses well enough to have an intellectual sort of love replace (and supplement) the purely emotional sort. Or they never got to know their spouse at all—it was all about the warm fuzzy feelings—and they were divorced. Either way, that’s a good analogy for many an “older” Christian: the mature ones and the apostate ones.
Why do you think God compares his relationship with his people so often to marriage?
(Oh, wait; that’s in the Old Testament prophets and you haven’t read them. Well, go back and read them first. Then comment.)