Start Thinking God Thoughts

I continue to reflect on “In A Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day” by Mark Batterson. In the third chapter a simple metaphor – heard before and mostly ignored before – has caused me to stop to ponder. According to Batterson, half of learning is learning. The other half is unlearning. Unfortunately, the unlearning is twice as hard as learning. So how do we unlearn the fears that inhibit us? Batterson uses a computer metaphor. We need to uninstall our old fears, and download the mind of Christ through scripture. “When we read Scripture, we are recruiting new nerve cells and rewiring neuronal connections. In a sense, we are downloading a new operating system that reconfigures the mind. We stop thinking human thoughts and start thinking God thoughts.”

Wow. Am I doing what it takes to think God thoughts? When I started scrapbooking I began to see my life as a series of scrapbook pages. I would stage events solely for the great pages they would make. (I am sorry, friends, who had to suffer through Mexican fiestas, hurricane birthday parties or trips to the circus for no reason at all). Perhaps the height of my obsession was the trip to Disney World where I picked coordinating outfits for the girls based on a really cute patterned paper I’d just found. Because I was a scrapbooker, I saw the world as one giant scrapbook. Recently I have done the same thing with blogging. Because I am always looking for post topics either here or on Dancing Thru Her Daddy’s World, I am beginning to see the world in “soundbyte” sized chunks that would make good blog posts. Think I’m kidding? Check out my “aroma” post here.

So what would it really take to start thinking God thoughts instead of scrapbook thoughts or blog thoughts? I guess it would take an overwhelming obsession with seeing God at work in the kingdom around me. If I were obsessed with finding these God moments every day, I would constantly tune my vision heavenward. If I were immersed in scripture the way I should be, scripture would be the first lens through which I would view my world, not the third or fourth. When I can walk into a coffee shop and hope not for peace and quiet but for a meaningful, God-ordained contact, then maybe I will have downloaded the mind of Christ.