The title is a quote from good old Renee Descartes, a philosopher from the 1600’s. I know many of you will [ like me ] will know little about philosophy and the like, but one thing we all need to learn is to think. Not just the responsive thinking such as ” I wonder what’s for tea?” or “Does my caboose look big in this ?” or perhaps ” My dear brother seems to be irritating me, I wonder if it’s anything I’ve done or said…”
The kind of thinking I mean is where we deliberately set out to be challenged, to extend our understanding, to get a deeper meaning in our minds and perhaps even change our minds as a result of some thoughtful discovery.
Today we seem to be very happy to accept whatever the media broadcasts as being truth. Rarely do any of us try to carry out any research of our own. When someone does express an opinion assertively and with an apparent foundational understanding, we just accept that presentation without processing anything for ourselves. This is not only a superficial way to lead our lives, it’s also dangerous and leads to large sections of the society being led down the garden path by politicians, opinion formers and others seeking influence, status and power. Just take a look at the Climate Change debacle and you’ll see what I mean….but this isn’t a rant today.
Sadly this is also true of the wider church. We seem to have come to a point where hardly any christians want to think for themselves. We just amble along, cherry picking from various books, ministries, tele-personalities, conference speakers or whatever. Isn’t it interesting that we all tend to accept and promote the things that prop up our frail and ailing psyches. We don’t like looking deeply to discover the truth in the inner most parts. We don’t like making any efforts to pray and meditate on a section of scripture to see if the Holy Spirit might reveal something to us – just for us! We simply press on as good little evangelicals, toeing the party line or being blown in the winds of doctrine because at some level or other it suits our emotional architecture and we don’t want to rock our psychological boat!
Yet God has said that we do not have a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and a sound mind. The latter gift is so that we can do some serious thinking and get engaged with God one on one, be lead by His Spirit and perhaps even be edified directly [ which is much more fulfilling than getting inspired second or third hand or worse ] and then share that with others who are called to be around us. All the verses to do with church, edification and exhortation are about communities praying, meditating, being inspired and sharing together what they have discovered by thinking!
Over the last two years I’ve learned to carry a text or piece of inspired writing with me in my bible for meditating and reflecting on. The text is printed on the left side of a bit of A4 paper, the other side is blank. I read it often, prayerfully, and as I feel something coming to me, I write it down on the right hand side or underline the text or link bits together with pencil lines. Once I was doing this for about three weeks, then suddenly things took a really different shape of understanding for me. Almost immediately afterwards I was asked to speak at a local fellowship and in prayer I found that I was to deliver what I’d recieved. What a blessing to me and it appeared to be timely for my friends too. I don’t tell you this to puff myself up, but to encourage you to do some deep and extended thinking – you never know who it might be for.
Please don’t settle for the easy route. Satan has got that well and truly covered and a passive and compliant, unthinking, nonpraying, unmeditative, thoughtless Christian is just what he wants you to be. Don’t do his work by doing nothing with your fine mind. Don’t tell yourself you can’t do it – all of us can think, it takes work but we can all think. Don’t refuse a challenge and don’t blindly follow anyone. Get your thoughts vertically active, get that wisdom from above rather than from the usual places.
Here’s a passage from a book which has inspired thousands over the years to seek a thought life with God. Why not give yourself a whole hour to pick it apart and see what you think it means to you. It’ll be difficult because the languange is archaic….but it’s still English and nothing that you can’t sort out with a dictionary and a pencil. Write down your thoughts and where they lead you.
The emanation or communication of the divine fullness,
consisting in the knowledge of God, love to him, and joy
in him, has relation indeed both to God and the creature:
but it has relation to God as its fountain, as the thing
communicated is something of its internal fullness. The
water in the stream is something of the fountain; and the
beams of the sun are something of the sun. And again,
they have relation to God as their object: for the knowledge
communicated is the knowledge of God; and the
love communicated, is the love of God; and the happiness
communicated, is joy in God. In the creature’s knowing,
esteeming, loving, rejoicing in, and praising God, the
glory of God is both exhibited and acknowledged, his
fullness is received and returned. Here is both an emanation
and remanation. The refulgence shines upon and into
the creature, and is reflected back to the luminary. The
beams of glory come from God, are something of God,
and are refunded back again to their original. So that the
whole is of God, and in God, and to God; and he is the
beginning, and the middle, and the end.
Jonathan Edwards “The End for Which God Created the World”
For those of you who only do bible material, try these verses…
Romans 14:19, 1 Corinthians 14:26, Ephesians 4:11-13.
Write them down, think and meditate on them and about them.
When you’ve done these things, share them with your friends and family. If you get excited about thinking so will those you love and live amongst.
Get thinking – get richer in your soul and spirit rather than drifting past the buffet of another person’s thoughts!
…and yes! I’d love to get your reaction.
