“Becky was a beauty from south Alabama
Her daddy had a heart like a nine-pound hammer
Think he even did a little time in the slammer
What was I thinkin'?
I know what I was feelin'
But what was I thinkin'... what was I thinkin’”

The 2003 tongue-in-cheek song by Dierks Bentley tells the story of a young man running off with a beautiful young girl. As he was being shot at by her daddy and chased by the law he lamented his situation. Looking at her he knew what he was feeling, but wondered: “What was I thinkin’?”

The triumph of emotionalism over reason is a common event in life going well beyond the relationships between boys and girls. It happens in family life, social life, politics, and religion. Most of the arguments asserting it’s our “Christian” duty to engage in large scale social work to “help” others, whether local or international, ignore the real world consequences to others (including quite often the recipients of the so-called help). We assume our help will magically “fix” messy situations despite ample evidence that real life doesn’t work that way and that our compassion, more often than not, just makes messy problems messier. Rather than stepping back to think through the situation and find a better approach, we press on, and label anyone who opposes our square peg in a round hole option as “un-christian”, cruel, and heartless. We know what we were feeling, but what were we thinking?

King Ahab was the poster boy for emotionalism as his response to being called out by God was to pout and sulk and call God’s prophets ugly names. But this morning’s question is directed to King Jehoshaphat. In the line of David, he came to the throne in Judah about the same time Ahab became king in Israel. Despite being described as a good king who followed David’s example (2 Chronicles 17:3-4) he made a huge mistake that almost destroyed Judah. In a triumph of emotionalism over reason he made an alliance with Ahab, and sealed it by marrying his son to Ahab’s daughter (2 Chronicles 18:1). What was he thinking? Did he really believe joining with pagans to stabilize and strengthen his godly efforts in Judah would work? Or did his emotional desire for stability temporarily triumph over his reason?

The same goes for us. Any time we consider compromising with evil people in the pursuit of good deeds we need to examine our motives. If we’re honest we will realize we’re letting emotion triumph over reason. Then we must ask: “What should we be thinking?” and look to God’s word for the answer.