I went from zero to devastated in about 10 seconds flat the other night. From content to freaked-out-worried-lady in record time. And you know what caused it? My thoughts.
Sure, it had been a busy week. Yeah, I was exhausted. True, I had a long list of things I still needed to do. But none of that caused the momentary breakdown. They made me vulnerable. But it was my thoughts that led to the momentary breakdown.
I’ve got lots to say about the thought life. I’ve been camped out on the topic for months now in my personal writing time. But I just wanted to (real-quick-like) share the very first step to renovating our thought lives.
The First Step
You ready for this one? Here it is. We start by asking God what in the world we’re thinking about.
I know it sounds duh, but for real. When we see the red flags of fear or worry or bitterness starting to wave, the very first step to taking our thoughts captive is to pause and ask God what we’re thinking. Because often, we don’t even realize the things swirling around in our head. We don’t consciously know all of the thoughts that are pushing us into a dance with debilitating feelings.
Feelings (fueled by thoughts) can be like a fast, fancy Corvette. It pulls up at our doorstep with its flashy, convincing amazingness and we jump in before we realize it’s a Zombie driving with a crazed-look in its eyes and our arms are strapped down so we can’t do anything to stop the vehicle. I didn’t plan this fantastic Zombie scenario before I started writing. It just came out as I typed so we’re going with it.
We need intervention to get outta the Zombie-driven-Corvette. We need something from outside of the car to bring it to a halt. We need God.
The next time fear or worry or bitterness or anxiousness (or a hundred other not-so-comforting emotions) starts to take us for a fast ride, let’s pause and ask God to show us what we’re thinking. Only then will we be ready to renovate our thoughts lives.
