Monday, April 27, 2009

Thoughts (I was really tempted to add "..from a teenage drama queen" but alas...)

Hello.
I have been given a small bit of a hard time on my blogging inactiveness. The other day I decided to attempt to compose a wonderful, thought provoking post that everyone would love. I did not get very far. In fact I got so not far that the only place i got to was thinking about every single individual thought I was having and then I tried not only to make only sense out of the mess, but concoct coherent blog post. In that I failed. Epic fail. I decided to read a book instead. But I began down a path of thinking. Needless to say, my fruitless thinking got me thinking. How many thoughts do we have a day? What exactly goes on "inside my head"? Some people declare they want to get inside peoples' heads, but I would don’t think I do; at least I don’t want people in my head, nor would I want to be in my head if I was another person. The head is an ugly place, and no amount of hair can hide that fact.
The other day, a couple friends and I went for a run. On this run, one friend began to randomly ask questions like "what do you think of when I say/you look at ______". He filled in the blank with thinks like trees, to creeks, to an assortment of colors and abstract concepts. Every time he would ask the question with a new insert in the blank, my mind would provide an answer. Just like that. Snap your fingers and my mind produced a thought that I did not try to conjure up. As far as I could tell, it just popped in. As my friend kept asking these questions, I began to attempt to trace my thought patterns and consequently became confused. So then we watched a movie and brought our brain functions to a comaish level.
As if that little story was not weird enough for you, the next day at youth group, the youth pastor taught on the subject of subconscious thought. He challenged the group to take inventory of their minds and be conscious of the ego supplying thoughts, feelings and reactions without your conscious mind being aware. You can try this at home, folks. It’s kind of strangely entertaining, revealing, enlightening, convicting and terrifying.
Thank you for bearing with me (if you have gotten this far) I do have a point in all of this. Really I do.

Mark 7:20-22
20 And He said, “What comes out of a man that defiles a man. 21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.

This is the ugly head, filled with ugly thoughts (and honestly, gray matter is not that physically attractive, if I do say so myself)

Romans 1:20-22
20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools.

When God is left out of the equation of thought, not only is it ugly, but it is futile and we become fools. Oh how true I have learned this to be.

2 Corinthians 10:1-6
1 Now I, Paul, myself am pleading with you by the meekness and gentleness of you. 2 But I beg you that when I am present I may not be bold with that confidence by which I intend to be bold against some, who think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, 6 and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

Every single thought. Every single one. They all must submit to Christ. Any idea how crazy huge that is? All the “omni-s” of God applied even in your brain.

Our minds never cease to hit us with thoughts, good and bad, wholesome and unwholesome, edifying and destructive. Scarily enough, we are held responsible for them, even if they just “popped in” from nowhere. Jesus says in Matthew 5 that if you even think about a woman wrong, you have committed adultery, and if you think angry thoughts towards a brother, you are guilty of murder. The weight of this has yet to sink in in my life (no, word processor, “in” was not a repeated word), and I have yet to bring my thoughts into captivity. They enjoy their freedom more than I can say. But there is a warrant for their arrest circulating, and God is faithful. That’s right. I just personified my thoughts as criminals. I’ll leave you to think about that one for a while. Let me know what you come up with in your thinkings….

2 comments:

Ben said...

Excellent post!
Man, Emily's last post and this post combined were totally what I wanted to make a post about. But now I don't have to. You two did it so nicely that now I can sit back and dwell upon truths way deeper than I can express. (Especially with text) And much better written.
Go you guys! :D

Holly said...

no way :O lol. im sorry. u should post anyway...really...cuz its more exciting when u post that when i post, cuz when im doing the poosting...well...the whole element of suprise is taken away ;)and i think you have some wonderful insight and learning noone else has got...