What Were You Thinking?!

Ever said that to someone? I've said it. I've had it said to me. And what is the standard response? "I dunno...."

I've been thinking about this whole thing of thinking. It comes out of my reflections on Romans 8. Paul makes the point that the difference between the dead person and the alive person is what they are thinking. Is it a mind that is controlled by the Spirit of God? Or a mind that is controlled by thinking about "sinful" things. "Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit." (Romans 8.5, NLT)

Thinking matters. And what we think about matters a whole lot. I don't think that is news to anyone but how do we shift in our thinking from things that drive wedges in our life to things that bring peace and unity in our life? One thing I know for certain, it doesn't happen without some intentionality in our actions. It also requires that we take responsibility for what we allow to influence our minds.

A couple of years ago I decided that I didn't want to wake up to talk radio or some song that a DJ decided to play at the moment my alarm clock went off. I decided I wanted to wake up to something that pointed me toward God. So I got a CD alarm clock and put in a worship CD.

Changing our thinking is not an issue of willpower. Emmet Fox wrote, "As soon as you resist mentally any undesirable or unwanted circumstance, you thereby endow it with more power - over which it will use against you, and you will have depleted your own resources to that exact extent." (Celebration of Discipline, Foster p.4). It is not about focusing on NOT DOING, it is about DOING things that lead to life. That is what the spiritual disciplines are all about.

Where have you succeeded or failed in changing your thinking?