The Unexamined Life - Part I

If you could step outside of your body and listen to and watch yourself, i.e. observe your actions and listen to your words, for thirty days, what conclusion would you come to? How would you rate yourself as a Christ follower, a Christian? I got around to thinking about this as I pondered the signature thought a friend uses on her emails. That line, author unknown, reads, "If you had friends who spoke like your thoughts, would you hang out with them?"

Not surprisingly, some of what we think privately about ourselves, others, some situations, and even about God, we would never say publicly. For some of us, the very nature of some of those thoughts is enough to provoke guilt as our conscience reminds us that we should not be thinking that way. Yet our thought life seems to be one of the most difficult to control. In the quietness of our own thoughts, we cycle through feelings of doubt, fear, judgmental attitudes, negativity, condemnation, rebellion, to name a few. For sure, mentally we sometimes quote Scriptures, we sing songs, and we meditate on the Word. However, it is all well and good to do all these things – but to actively apply them is where the rubber meets the road. Like a thief in the night, the dark thoughts loom largely in the background of our minds just waiting to steal our joy and peace.

It is no wonder the apostle Paul reminded the believers in Corinth, "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:3-5, KJV). In other words, every thought that is not wholesome, or is proud, or not in line with God’s word and purposes, or negative thinking, we need to “lead away captive into the obedience of Christ." This requires a transformation of our minds that comes only through consistently realigning our thoughts and thinking with the Word of God. We cannot do that by ourselves. It is only as we yield ourselves to being led by the Spirit that He will show us the way and provide the help we need.

How is your thought life? "If you had friends who spoke like your thoughts, would you hang out with them?"