PRINCIPLE 6 |
In the previous chapter we analyzed the individual's inner functions. In this chapter we take another look at the intellectual and the emotional functions.
The word "cognition" refers to the intellectual functions. Cognition must take place for anything else to happen in the inner person. Yet, cognition alone is inadequate. Cognition should often lead to decision and action.
Some people, in view of the fact that cognition by itself is insufficient, emphasize those things which follow cognition -- emotions, decisions, and especially actions. In fact, sometimes they emphasize them so much that they end up downgrading cognition. "The Lord doesn't want you to sit and talk," they might say. "He wants you to get out and witness." "Why waste four years getting an education when you could be serving the Lord?" "Don't try to understand it: just take it by faith and act upon it." These are lopsided statements which devalue cognition. Cognition is extremely important, although it should not be valued as an end in itself.
Cognition is first in the sequence of inner functions, so it is the prerequisite to everything else that the person does. And it is not merely the awareness of isolated facts which makes cognition a basis for action. Cognition also involves the interrelating of facts, ideas, assumptions, and much more. As facts and ideas are compared and integrated, we gain new insight into life and the universe. We begin to see the principles which account for those isolated facts and experiences. We evaluate viewpoints, we test presuppositions, we establish priorities in a value system. All of these serve as a check on emotions and as a guide for decision and action. The action, whether it is witnessing or serving or whatever, is always done better if it is guided by careful and thorough thought. Cognition is central to both evangelism and edification, and instruction is logically the most basic of all the elements in the life of the local church. Doctrine and education are important.
But, of course, there is the opposite error, which is the glorification of cognition. It is a mistake to focus all of our attention on doctrine and none on action. What we need is balance. We need a healthy emphasis on cognition. We also need to remind ourselves that Christianity is more than knowledge; it is a way of life.
All people emote. We were created to have emotional reactions to our conscious thoughts. Emotions, however, can work against us. General anxiety and depression interfere with many people's lives. Fears can turn a pleasant day into a terrible experience or lead to defense mechanisms and irrational behavior. But perhaps the most widespread emotional disorder of all is the lack of control of one's desires or motives. This disorder may even be universal.
Learning to control one's emotions seems to be a long and difficult task. Children soon find out that they cannot have everything they want whenever they want it, so the struggle begins. We, as Christian workers, can help people gain control over their emotions. But in order to do so, we must be aware that there are two different kinds of desires or motivations. One kind stems from the fact that we are human. That is, some of our desires are simply part of God's design. These desires are called organismic needs and are discussed in the remainder of this chapter. The other kind stems from the fact that we are sinners. These desires, which grow out of our basic selfishness, are discussed in the next chapter.
"Organismic needs" (a phrase used in the fields of biology and psychology) refers to the needs that are built into the nature of an organism, whether it is a plant, a simple animal, a more complex animal, or a human being. These organismic needs include all that an individual organism must have to survive and be healthy. Even though we are limiting our discussion to human beings, we will still use this phrase in order to emphasize the fact that these needs are inherent in human life. In other words, we have these needs because God designed us in such a way that they are a necessary and integral part of our humanness.
Organismic needs are quite different from normative needs. In fact, it is unfortunate that the word "needs" has to be used in both phrases, because psychologically and educationally normative needs and organismic needs are oceans apart. Normative needs are not built in. Instead, they are based on norms that are established by someone or something outside the individual. When a mother says to her son, "You need to polish your shoes," she is setting up a standard or norm which does not come from inside the boy. Our need to pay taxes comes from the structure of our society and from our government, not from within us as individuals. Many other standards are established for people by their parents and by civil government. And many are established by God, such as the need to resist temptation, the need to be patient and honest, and the need to bear one another's burdens. But these are all normative needs.
This distinction between organismic and normative needs is very significant for the Christian worker because he will constantly be faced with both kinds of needs. But they operate very differently. On the one hand, organismic needs are built in and often subconscious. Yet they automatically motivate a person to action. (This is why psychologists also call them inner drives, because they drive people to whatever actions they think will satisfy the needs.) On the other hand, normative needs are not built in and they do not automatically motivate a person.
Below is a list of organismic needs grouped into three categories. The physical needs pertain to the individual's body and its functions. The social needs pertain to the individual's relationship to other individuals. The personal needs, or ego needs, pertain to the individual and his need to think well of himself.
| Physical | Social | Personal |
|---|---|---|
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Depending on the circumstances, the physical needs are often the strongest motivators, the social needs are next in strength, and the personal needs are weakest. The average person in our culture routinely has most of his physical needs met. Thus, his daily activities are motivated mainly by his social and personal needs. In many of the more primitive cultures, daily activity is much more motivated by the needs for food and safety.
If you want to increase both your understanding of yourself and your understanding of how organismic needs work, you might try carrying a list of social and personal needs with you for a few days and keeping a record of your own activities and what needs are motivating those activities. You will probably find (assuming you are able to be honest enough with yourself) that there are certain needs which motivate you repeatedly, while other needs seldom do. Each individual has a different personality, a different background, and a different set of daily circumstances, so each individual has his own unique set of needs which are his main drivers.
It is somewhat more dangerous to try to analyze other people's motives or to try to predict their behavior. It is difficult enough to be sure of one's own motives, let alone someone else's. Certain activities might spring from one motive for one individual but from a different motive for another individual. So it would be dangerous to assume that a certain activity always reveals a certain underlying motive.
We must remember that these organismic needs are built in and God-given. They were designed into human nature, so there is nothing morally good or bad about the needs themselves. Rather, the way a person goes about meeting his needs can be good or bad, but the needs themselves are morally neutral.
The desires that arise from these needs are also neutral, and we should do what we can to help meet these needs in legitimate ways. It is a serious mistake to ignore organismic needs or to tell a person that he should deny his desires and needs. If we do not meet his needs, he will be driven to find someone or something else that will meet them. Beside the fact that we can drive people away from us by our rude or critical behavior, we must also keep in mind that their inner needs will also drive them away from us, even if we do nothing.
Notice God's response to Adam's need for companionship (Genesis 2:18-24). God was aware of Adam's need, for he said, "It is not good for the man to be alone." The very next sentence in that passage tells us that God planned to do something to meet that need. God did not ignore Adam's need, nor did he tell Adam to deny his need. In fact, Adam was not yet aware of his own need, and God gave him the task of naming all the types of animals so he would realize that he was one of a kind and needed another human being as a helper.
Organismic needs are legitimate and they are powerful motivators. Christian workers should not hesitate to meet these needs. We should accept each individual and make him feel part of the group. We should show him that we can see things from his perspective. We should be quick to offer recognition and approval whenever appropriate. We should help him see his own accomplishments. And, we should help him appreciate his own growth of knowledge and insight. Through our genuine friendship we should be responsive to each individual's inner needs.
But friendship must be genuine. If you know the motivating power of these inner drives, it is all too easy to use them in a possessive "friendship" to manipulate another person.
One more caution is necessary. Some people may be strongly drawn to us because no one else is meeting their organismic needs, and we are. For example, they may attend Sunday school class, not because they want to learn in general, and not because they want to learn the Bible in particular, but because we are the only person in their lives who makes them feel welcome. Or an individual may even go through the motions of accepting Jesus because he knows we will approve, and no one else has shown him approval for years.
In order to guard against such unintentional manipulation, we should get to know as much as we can about a person's background. We should find out if he might be rejected by others, or if some other organismic need is consistently going unmet. Also, we should try to convey the idea to him that our friendship is not dependent upon his making certain decisions or commitments. That is, he does not have to "accept" our Jesus in order to gain our friendship.