Sometimes you have to fake it till you make it.

At other times you realize “your truth” was a lie all along.

Our feelings can clue us in to vital truths.

They can also lie to us.

The Bible talks about the tension between feelings and belief.

1. 2 Corinthians 5:7 (NIV) says “we walk by faith, not by sight.” If we believe that God can do anything, and that he will do what he said, then we can choose to believe God’s promises over the limited and often discouraging evidence of our eyes, and perhaps more importantly, the fickle account of our feelings.
2. Hebrews 11:1 (ESV) tells us “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Faith believes for things that have not yet come to pass. And It is not just faint optimism. It is not a wish. It is a conviction, a bedrock trust.
3. Romans 4:17 says that God gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did. God has the power to speak things into existence, to speak dead things back to life. We who walk by faith use our words accordingly, speaking those things we want to see into existence.

The person who lives by faith chooses to believe God when they have every reason and opportunity not to.

We always have a choice: we can resign ourselves to the negative, or we can practice the positive as we wait on God.

In Melody Beattie’s January 17^th meditation from “The Language of Letting Go”, “Acting as If”, she talks about the power of practicing the positive in our feelings.

The person who “acts as if” chooses the path of recovery by pretending they feel differently than they do, for the purpose of walking in the healing they await.

Acting as if allows us to take the postures we want to have, to do the things we need to do, despite feelings that don’t support them.

We choose to act as if we feel fine, and will be fine, while we are still hurting, so we don’t sink into immobilized despair.

We act as if we’re not scared, when we’re terrified, so we can stand tall and face the giants head on, instead of cowering in submission.

We act as if the problem is solved, even while we are working on solving it, so we don’t spend all our time and energy obsessing over it.

We act as if we have healthy boundaries, and right priorities, even while we are still entangled in someone else’s dysfunction, because it informs the direction in which we are trying to head.

We act as if we love ourselves, even when we feel worthless. And since love is defined as much by what it does as how it feels, treating ourselves with love is often more than half the battle. Love sacrifices to make someone else a priority. There may be stages in our brokenness where we need to prioritize us.

Here’s a vital distinction.

1. Acting as if is not the same as denying a problem. It is, as Beattie says, “a positive way to overcome fears”[1], and the self-defeating behaviors that come with them. For many of us, fear keeps us from trying. And often the trying is where the breakthrough occurs. We are giving ourselves the opportunity to walk in the state we want to inhabit and do the things that state would do.
2. Acting as if is _not_ denying objective realities.
   1. We don’t slap our maxed-out credit card on the counter acting as if we can pay when we can’t. Confidence doesn’t change math.
   2. We don’t pretend an addict is not using. Positivity doesn’t change meth.
   3. We don’t act as if someone is not abusing us when they are. Wishful thinking doesn’t change myth. If some cases, it enables it. We end up tolerating mistreatment and conspiring to keep secrets.

Instead, acting as if recognizes that the promise of tomorrow is not limited by the pain of today,

Beattie says:

Acting as if is a positive way to overcome fears, doubts, and low self-esteem. We do not have to lie; we do not have to be dishonest with ourselves. We open up to the positive possibilities of the future, instead of limiting the future by today’s feelings and circumstances.[2]

We are not lying by believing that life can get better. We are deceived when we declare that bad is all it will ever be.

Today, I pray you honestly acknowledge where you are.

I pray, though, that you lovingly allow yourself to act like where[3] you want to be.

And I pray that you get there.

Traveling mercies.

(Photo Credit: Visoes Domundo)

[1] 1. Melody Beattie, “Acting As If,” essay, in The Language of Letting Go (Hazelden Publishing, 2009), 17.

[2] Ibid.