Comments on: Trust Your Gut: Lessons Learned from Haguenau and Macy Falls

By: Joseph Graber

Joseph Graber — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 01:20:12 +0000

It’s okay to “Trust your gut” if you’ve trained it and submitted it to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit uses surrendered ‘guts’ :)

By: Luke|and|etc

Luke|and|etc — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 14:12:07 +0000

Great topic.
I do agree with the summery: examine what your gut is really revealing to you.
I’ll say that, in myself, I’ve found my sharpest reactions are usually linked to some guilt or shame, and usually is something that I think is just normal.
There’s a lot of freedom when you can actually point at what the real issues are, acknowledge them, grieve rightly, and move on.

Sometimes though, I’ll say as well, if you’re working through stuff, being reasonable, and your gut is still going crazy, 1). you need some input from others; 2). you may need to stop self-obsessing and get over yourself.

By: Abel

Abel — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 19:42:37 +0000

On the tail end of what has been a nearly life long depression and struggle with anxiety. Good call on pointing the finger at the inner critic.

By: Cody D.

Cody D. — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 17:16:58 +0000

For anyone that enjoys contributions from Marcus Brotherton, I would highly suggest that you hop onto YouTube and watch some of his video presentations. These articles gain a lot more significance / impact when you can imagine the words presented with his tone, emphasis and mindful cadence.

By: JSH

JSH — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 05:42:58 +0000

“If you’ve ever been in a similar predicament, where you’ve lost your cool.”…. Did you really mean “ever” ??? I lose it almost 2 times every day while going to office and coming back, 2 times each way. No dearth of idiot drivers on Indian roads, and a whole lot of inconsiderate people trying to push you to wits end, including the bike owners and the tuk-tuk (3 wheelers) buzzing around with utmost disrespect for the law or any kind of self-imposed discipline. Traffic police and law, you must be joking.

By: CB

CB — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:05:21 +0000

Thank you for this article. It’s well-written, thoughtful, and heartening. I was moved by both stories, as well as the way you wove them together. As a man who is struggling to come to grips with the painful issues beneath my gut, this speaks to me right where I am and gives me a different way to think about my life.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 16:47:32 +0000

That was a great article, Marcus, and it spoke to me. There are days that I have to stop myself from being short-fused when my 2-year-old daughter tests her boundaries and my patience, and this is going to make me take a deeper look at why some days I am shorter on patience than others.
I would also like to say this to “Drip,” who posted a comment: You are very well spoken for a young man of 17 years. At a time when many of your peers are hard-pressed to string together a dozen properly spelled words into a coherent sentence, you seem to understand how to make language work for you and express the power of the written word. You will find many gems on the AoM site, and I am gld to see a young man taking the time to examine his forming character. Kudos to you.

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 07:07:19 +0000

Yes it is definately very valuable learning our ‘triggers’ and realizing alot of what happening isn’t that situation but something from our past.

Thanks for the article.

By: Brad Norcross

Brad Norcross — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 05:49:53 +0000

Great, great post.

By: Christina

Christina — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 18:44:05 +0000

I was told once that anger is a masking emotion for fear, pain or guilt. This post is then saying, “when you feel anger, trust that there is something under that and figure out what it is and respond to that.” Whether it is fear about falling off a cliff, pain over the loss of a loved one, or guilt for turning the wrong way in traffic, once you find that source trigger you can respond accordingly.

This is a good thing for us to remember, for other knee-jerk emotions. “Trust your gut” is code for “trust your emotions to be pointing to an underlying truth that needs to be dealt with.” Yes, the emotion might be irrational, but I’ve not till this point found them to be completely divorced from reality. Even women, who at certain times might start sobbing at some silly thing, are responding to an actual trigger, the emotion is just quicker and more powerful than is typical.

I see how the military story fits; Rivers probably felt anger over the new trip and he analyzed it and saw that it was because of the fear for the lives of his men over a useless mission. But I’m not sure his actions would be acceptable, for lying is never a good solution to a problem. To disobey an unjust order is one thing, it in itself not to be taken lightly because how would you know that it was actually unjust. Do you have all the information or know what the actual plan is? But it seems so much worse to disobey then lie about it to cover it up.