I was chatting with friends the other day about what we think about.
We could all recount things that happened in our childhood that negatively impacted our lives, shaped the way we thought of ourselves or even the decisions we made as adults. Little things that were said, even a look that was thrown our way. It's astonishing - and heartbreaking - how those things direct our identity. Yet, we didn't so readily remember the good things that were sewn into our lives.
If we're a disciple of Christ, we're not called to think on the patterns of this world. He gives us different patterns of living.
The patterns of this world are not only what's going on around us, externally. The patterns of this world must include our own minds. Our minds follow their own patterns and we have to bring our thoughts under control if we're to have any peace.
Romans 12:2 (NCV)
Do not be shaped by this world; instead be changed within by a new way of thinking. Then you will be able to decide what God wants for you; you will know what is good and pleasing to him and what is perfect.
Our thoughts can swirl around our heads like mini tornadoes, picking up debris and hurling it around to revisit and reinvest within ourselves, resulting in futility and further carnage.
2 Corinthians 10:5 (NIV)
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
We are not just taught how important it is to control our minds, we make it obedient to Christ. Why? Well, what does God want for us? Wholeness of heart. Peace of mind. No broken, sharp edges to continue to scrape and cut us. No warped mirror imaging. No quicksand thinking. No prideful hurdles that cause faceplant falls.
There's a thing called stream of consciousness in writing. This is a narrative method that tries to depict the stream of thoughts that passes through the mind of the story-teller.
God's been speaking to me about controlling my own stream of consciousness. We all have it. It's part of what helps us to process life. But we can get caught up in a vortex without realising or meaning to and before we know it, our minds have zoomed down a rabbit hole that only produces futility. We all do it, but that's where ruminating begins.
Ruminating is a type of reflection but it carries a connotation of brooding and can end in unhealthy places. Meditating is also a type of reflection but it serves to aid the mind towards calmness and wellness. When a Christian meditates, we focus on God and God's Word, which not only calms the mind, it fills the mind with good things, replacing what is futile and degenerate with what is healthy and life-giving.
When we give things up we have to replace it with something that is better.
When I face the things my mind is streaming, I generally begin to replace it with praise. I switch my attention to the person of whom I'm made in the image of. Everything shifts.
Nothing else fills my cup, my plate, or my day, my emptiness, my cravings, or my friendships the way God's Word does. He is my hope, my light, my salvation, my joy, my peace, my contentment in every moment. Night or day. Nothing else can nestle, nourish or nurture me the way the love of God, the grace of Jesus and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit can.
Colossians 3:16 (ESV)
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
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