Relationships
«He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed»(Proverbs 13:20).
Epinephrine (also called adrenaline) received a good deal of attention lately. It is used as a medicine in cardiopulmonary resuscitation in case of a heart attack, circulatory collapse, asthma attack or allergic reaction. Even if epinephrine has been synthesized in labs for more than one hundred years, the human suprarenal glands have been secreting it since the creation of man. In fact, these glands produce it intensively when a person is faced with high-risk situations such as fear or tension. This happens to provide the person more energy to survive the threat. Besides providing energy, epinephrine affects our emotions in such a way that, when we feel the substance, we experience feelings that may be positive (joy, gratitude, satisfaction, enthusiasm . . . or negative (fear, despair, frustration, hostility . . .).
Experimental psychology has been studying the effect of this chemical substance on human emotions for decades. One of the first experiments was carried out by Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer. They injected a group of students with a dose of epinephrine to study its effect on their temperamental behavior. They assigned to half of them a partner who acted joyfully and playfully while the other half got a moody and grumpy one. It was observed that all participants displayed a more intense emotional activity than usual (probably because of the epinephrine), but it was interesting to notice the great difference between the two groups, in reference to their pleasant or grumpy partner. The researchers were hoping that their reaction would be identical, without being influenced by the presence of the two types of partners. This is how they would have proved that the epinephrine was responsible for the emotional activation. But the result was different: the first group displayed intense positive emotions and the second ones showed intense negative emotions.
These observations confirm that the presence of a calm and happy person produces very different efforts from those of a tense and annoying one. One of the fool’s characteristic is anger: «For wrath kills a foolish man» (Job 5:2). Today’s verse warns us that, if we walk with fools, we will become just like them. It seems that the effect is relentless: the presence of others is more powerful than epinephrine (or adrenaline).
Today, let us plan to seek the company of wise people so that we could also be wise and avoid spending too much time with fools Prov. 13:20).
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Taken from: Daily Devotions for Junior 2020
“A Cheerful Heart Is Good Medicine”
From: Julian Melgoza-Laura Fidanza
Colaboradores:Ricardo Vela & Emmanuel Tapia
