Let's think about thinking, how we disrupt and reform the world.
Thinking is the essential computational power that allows us to interface and interact with our environment and people, business, nature, in such a way that we generate some significance through mobility and language. Each of these is tied to the thought process and thus thinking can become rather foggy or esoteric or difficult to understand or material.
The Fundamental Difference Between Humans and Machines
Thinking makes humans significantly different than robots. Robots cannot think by a very definition. They can only compute, which means to crunch digits. They can only run the program. They have to be trained.
There's much fear in the world that the synchronicity will somehow happen, the singularity they call it, the merger of man and machine, and it's just a bunch of garbage.
Why? Because God, if God then man, if God man, not machine, that's the equation, because God never breathed into the mouth of a robot and gave that robot a living soul, a spark of personality, a spirit.
There is the human perception that somehow we're going to be taken over and that robots will rise. This is anti-God. This is not able to stand. It will not stand.
No matter how closely a robot resembles a human, a robot cannot technically process data according to the full spectrum complexity of the human intellect, or the soul, or the spirit.
The Mind of Christ
Scripture says, "So then, with the mind, I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin." So that means my flesh tends to do things that are separate from God's nature, while my mind can pursue the spirit of a living God.
My mind, Scripture affirms, we have the mind of Christ. Now, to what degree we employ it, utilize it, empower it, enjoy it, really remains a matter of energy and pursuit. Much of the guidance when it comes to our mind throughout Romans and Corinthians and the other epistles is about direction of pursuit, follow after, facing toward, turning from, selecting a better object of focus.
The mind is nearly indefinable, but we should try because I'm responsible to think. I've been given agency, free moral agency, which means I have a conscience just limited, but it's still a general guide. Then we have greater revelation, larger understanding, and we are responsible for how we process the world.
Evidence of Deep Thinking
Thoughts are deep and wide and rare.
One evidence that a person is thinking amongst many is how often they're able to transfer thoughts through their face for the betterment of others. We know it is silly if what is spoken or sung is only for entertainment at all times. We know it is wisdom when there is a searching of the inner man, there is a desire to want to include God in the selection of the pace, vocabulary.
Thinking is somewhat evidenced by speaking, and you'll find today that many people are not speaking as much as they should be, at least in the area of delivering truth or lessons learned.
You know, grandparents have a reputation for being storytellers because we want to relay not just what happened to us but what we learned through life. We want to be a blessing and a betterment to the next generation. Protect them from finding similar potholes and pain points along the bumps of life. We want to reconsider and remember the good times the God was with us and guided us through tough scenarios that turn into great stories.
The Challenge of Modern Distractions
Thinking can be listening to the right people, discerning, dividing, sensing, tasting, smelling with our mind what is pure, clean and right and what is less and dark and dim.
Social media tends to overwhelm the mind with snippets of small data that undermines our capacity to maintain a thought in our mind's eye for much longer than a few moments.
We have difficulty meditating. Therefore, we have difficulty mentally self-medicating. We have difficulty thinking three steps ahead. We have difficulty processing deeper thoughts.
We love as humans to function kind of on a surface level without much need for mental exertion. I have heard biologically that our brain is kind of like a cortex central station for the most amount of electrical exchanges in our synapses. And I've heard that the brain, the little tiny 3 pounds of goo that we have up there and our head and our face of course, but mostly our mind is what consumes the majority of our caloric, our calories, our units of energy.
And that the mind causes more weight loss overnight than any other part of the body. That's pretty obvious because the rest of your body isn't really moving too much other than your heart and your lungs. The mind is not designed to shut down entirely.
The Balance of Speaking and Listening
So, I've been admonished as you have obviously probably on several occasions to pipe down on the deliverables. It's a nice way to say, "Stop talking so much." And that is true.
There are a couple of verses, obviously, that say that a man devoid of wisdom tends to be high velocity on language. There are some people who have no filter and everything that comes out, they think it's worthy of everyone else hearing it. This is a symptom of foolishness and childishness, of course.
However, Solomon also wrote thousands of proverbs and he was wise and he had to get them out. There was a guy, Jeremiah, said, "I'm not going to speak anymore. I'm done. I'm going to the unemployment line. I'm not going to speak anymore." But his word was in my belly, like it was ready to burst. It was going to flow out.
I believe one of Job's friends, the very last one, the youngest one, the one that did not get scolded by God. The first three, God's like you guys or no, you didn't get it right. You tried but you did not properly define an accurate depiction of what God is or how God feels or how God thinks.
But friend number four waited to the end. And I believe he's the fellow that says my mouth. And my inner being is like a swelled up bag of skin. I am like an expanded capacity drinking vessel. And I'm going to burst if I don't tell you the truth.
I listened to these 3 older fellas because I thought I should. And I stayed here the longest because I thought I'd be patient. And I listened to your answer, Job. And I think everybody here needs a little fine tuning. And then when he speaks last, apart from Job, which God affirms, met much of what Job says about God.
But this last fella, he had something worthy of saying. There's something definitely to be said about the timing, the pacing, that he earned the platform, he was most patient, maybe he had time to articulate it.
Thinking as Divine Exploration
But thinking is a massive gift from God, especially when it comes to the exploration of God.
By this way, I mean to indicate that many false doctrines can be arrived at if we fall short of full evaluation, that the Bible is an exceedingly thick book. God is an exceedingly dense topic of exploration Himself.
His many facets. God has revealed His excellent, complete, unexplainable nature in how that He just gave us so many trees. Just look around and look at it.
If the creation is an expression of the Creator, then certainly He is extremely diverse.
And I'm sad that that word has been stolen or misused or redefined.
But look at the various species just amongst the trees. You have the, not carnivorous, but carciferous the evergreens you have different trees that tend to grow in different temperatures and different environments and different heights and different kind of general structures and then you have the palm trees and you have just so many kinds of trees. And every one of them is unique in its branch formation and the style of leaves. We're not amazed at the leafs. We're amazed at the designer. I want Him to sign the leaf for me.
The Heart-Mind Connection
Anyway, there is something to be said about mental exercise when exploring the depth of the nature of the identity of God and scripture and words. There's something to be said about deep thinking that adds significant cheesecake value to the cohesiveness of any human relationship.
Hashtag every conversation matters. Word pacing, the heart motive behind the word, the empathy and concern in the tone of deliverableness, the void of no distraction in the background, anticipating response, striving diligently to ensure proper reception by the audience or the individual.
"Vast" is the chasm of lack when it comes to proper thinking techniques. "Rare" is the person who reads.
We snip, we watch, we scroll, we get bored, and we don't get our mind.
And in Scripture, it's really unique that the mind and the heart perform a similar function. They're almost interchangeable, that out of the heart proceed certain evil things, which does not mean the seat of our emotion. It means the capacity for comprehension and processing. So the heart and the mind are nearly connected. They're cohesively, nearly indistinguishable and according to the definition of the manufacturer, our heart and mind are merged or intertwined and there's been much study about the electrical cohesion between what we call our physical heart and our mind.
The Transcendent Nature of Our Being
But the actual resonance of dwelling of our... It might not be merely physical. It probably is metaphysical. We transcend this nature. We are temporarily in this vehicle of a body, but we are transcendent according to Scripture and according to Eastern mysticism and according to almost every religion that believes there's an afterlife.
There's the core of us that is separated from this and we go beyond into the spirit world, carrying not just our spirit but also our soul. And our soul includes at least three subsets which is of course our personality and then that's our peculiarities, our preferences, our emotions but also our mind. Which means the thing in me that calculates and chooses what not to think about but instead chooses what to pursue. That goes with me on the journey into the next body into the next phase.
Since we cannot imagine just floating in the ether. We will want to have a new body, a new experience, different senses somewhat.
Practical Guidelines for Healthy Thinking
All of this, let's wrap it up by saying that thinking is healthy, thinking is scriptural, thinking should be meditative, thinking should be floating, but mostly positive.
We should not just seek neutrality, which is homeostasis or basic borderline just staying in the same place that creates a boring brain but we must for lack of swinging way hard onto the bandwagon of just you know positive thought stuff we should be, according to scripture, meditating there in day and night, mentally chewing and enjoying some part of the spirit world, be that the identity of God, the scripture, the actions and results of Christ expressed in the world, the relationships we can enjoy through the church and through family.
Thinking is healthy. Thinking can be improved. Thinking is an exercise. Thinking must be intentional. Thinking should eventually be expressed. Thinking should be organized. Thinking can be repetitious. Thinking can be good or bad. Thinking can be positive or negative thinking should not be neutral all the time.
And we should be aware not just of what we're thinking but why we're thinking that way. A wise man once said, "I'm not so focused on the decision that you made but I am curious about the 3-step process that brought you to this choice." To which the receiver said, "I didn't even realize there were three steps." And he started thinking about it, right? There's probably many more steps.
So, thinking has layers. Thinking has texture. It's dexterous. It's three-dimensional. It stretches over time. We are supposed to plan ahead. Those who do not think ahead tend to not get ahead.
The Limitations of Human Thought
Although there are limitations to our thoughts, which of you Jesus was teasing the Pharisees and the scribes, particularly the scribes, because scribes, when you interweave your identity into words, you eventually feel the power of words, and then you have to be brought into reality that words cannot change the weather. Words do not formulate water.
Oh, you speak this word over water and it forms a heart. False. Prove it right now in a lab. No, not show me a video on YouTube, but you speak to the water and make it form into a snowflake. You speak to the darkness and make it turn into light.
He said, "Which of you, Jesus, was teasing the Christ?" He was face to face with these blind guides. And He said to the scribes, those who love to twist and pervert and redefine and power themselves to have authority over the word. I will be equal to the word. I am the word. Okay, no, dude. Jesus is the word.
So, Jesus was not excited about the scribes because they thought that they had word power. And He would tell them, "Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit to your stature?" Hey, Shorty. Tell yourself to grow. See how that goes. Yeah. "Which of you can turn one hair of his head white or black?"
Now, this is back in the day when maybe they had some dyes, but they didn't have hair growth treatment knowledge. And so, Jesus was saying, "You're bald. If you had word power, you should have been able to fix that, but you don't have it, do you? Because there's limits. Yes, words are powerful because you're talking to Him. I am the word. But yet, you can't change your physical, you can't change your appearance, you can't change your structure, your stature, your height, your strength, your speed. You're not superhuman. Your words do not make you a superhero. You can dream all day, buddy. It ain't gonna happen."
Overcoming Defective Thinking
Anyway, this does not mean that we should stop thinking. For in the process of thinking, we will run up with the problems and hopefully, through God's help, be able to resolve some of our defective thinking.
Defective thinking typically focuses on self, self-gain, self-leverage, self-improvement, self-me, greed.
The root of all evil is reflected by a person's fascination with the power of money. Thinking too much on money equals greed and it equals self-gain at the expense of others instead of reward by helping others.
So, business is thinking, relationships are thinking, your spiritual growth is through thinking, processing Scripture is thinking, developing closeness with God and comfort and confidence is thinking.
The Rarity of Thoughtful People
Most people do not spend time thinking, they don't know how to exercise, they don't know how to articulate, they don't know how to hit record, they don't publish, they don't produce, they don't have the gift, it's just very rare.
Here, you can find someone who you put a microphone in front of them. You can give them up to an hour to prepare. Of course you have to have the spirit of God. Of course you have to have humility. Of course you have to have practice and all that stuff.
But it is very rare that people are thoughtful enough that they have core concepts ready to launch that they are able to put an illustration with and they're able to make get deliverable and they're able to put some sense of persuasive confidence in their delivery.
Extremely rare.
The Ultimate Question
So, you have to think to yourself this one thought.
Do I want to be a more thought-filled, thoughtful thinker in this year?
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