the crucial importance of the thought life

August 5, 2011

If thou art pained by any external thing, it is not this that disturbs thee, but thy own judgment about it. And it is in thy power to wipe out this judgment now. (Meditations by Marcus Aurelius)

Throughout this past year (&particularly over summer), I've been reading many great Christian books on how terribly important our thought lives are. The above quote is from a book I'm currently reading (Habits of the Mind by Archibald Hart). It describes what I've truly seen in my own experiences throughout this summer. So often our actions, our negative feelings reside in our own thought, not in others' actions or words. For example, if someone is driving at 45 on the freeway in front of you, you have two options: respond angrily or pass it off neutrally. If you think that this person is a terrible driver, shouldn't be allowed on the freeway, causing you a hindrance, etc., then naturally you will respond angrily and full of frustration. If you think that this person must be lost, must be new to the area, might be having some car trouble, must be experiencing their first time on the freeway &terribly regretting the decision but can't get off yet, etc., then naturally you will not respond angrily and just deal with the situation neutrally. One situation, two different responses - positive &negative. We see that the responsibility and control of our response and emotions are not governed by that one situation, but by our thoughts on the situation.

Another example is in the words people say to us. We so often read meaning into other people's words because of the thoughts we have in our minds already. For example, if a guy were to compliment a girl "you look nice today!" Amazingly, there are again two possible responses. The girl can say "why thank you! :)", a nice positive response that is rooted in the thought that this guy is simply complimenting her. Or, the girl can say "are you saying that I didn't look nice yesterday?!", a nice negative response that is rooted in the thought that the guy wasn't simply giving a compliment, but subtly noticing that the other days did not compare to today. In every situation, we have control over our emotions, which tie to our original thoughts and which hence tie to our responses. What's more, from the above example, if the girl decides to respond with "does that mean I didn't look nice yesterday?!", I'm sure that guy will think twice about the next time he will want to simply compliment her. A negative response, will breed a series of negative actions until someone decides to put a stop to it with a positive response that lies in having right positive thoughts.

Of course, some things people say to us are intended to hurt us. But honestly, our responses and our thoughts don't have to be dependent on others' motive. If someone angrily says to us 'how stupid you are!', that'd hurt. But, instead of thinking 'how dare you say that to me! you're the stupid one!', we can remember that well, the other person is just angry and may have plenty of issues on his own to deal with, and our call from God is to respond with love to everyone. God never called us to love only when times were great & we didn't feel hurt, but His call to love others is all the more important when people persecute us or hate on us, as evidenced by the many passages in the Bible that talks of blessing those who persecute & hurt us.

“When you consider how many people (to quote [James] Allen) “sour their lives and ruin all that is sweet and beautiful by explosive tempers or who destroy their poise of character” by uncontrolled thought, it is clear that we need to recover a greater appreciation for self control [of our thoughts], an appreciation that has slipped from us in modern times.”

Our thoughts influence our attitudes, which influence our emotions, which influence our behaviors, which influence our character and entire well being – spiritual, emotional, physical, and mental. How important it is then that our thought life be positive, that it be grounded in God’s word and godly thinking!

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things. (Phil. 4:8)

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. (2 Corinth. 10:5)

If we can truly live by and live out the above two verses, I believe it'd make huge changes on our thought life and subsequently, our social lives, our mental health, our spiritual lives/health, and our physical health for the better. My thought life is an area of my life that I've become greatly conscious of since reading these books, and I'm just amazed at how often negative thoughts about others, about situations, or about myself can quickly come to mind given certain circumstances. God didn't give me those thoughts, and those thoughts do not further His kingdom, nor glorify His name. So there can only be one effect of those negative and wrong thoughts: aiding Satan in His goal of destroying me spiritually, destroying others, breaking relationships, creating bitterness and resentment among people, etc. So in all these things, I've been aiming to look at the positive of every situation, focusing my eyes on Christ and evaluating all words, actions, and circumstances by His standard, and not by the instinctive nature of my flesh nor what is supported by secular society. It is not an easy thing to do, given how long I've allowed my thoughts not to be controlled solely by God's word, but with God's strength and with the Holy Spirit, I know it can be done!