Thinking it Out

So the other morning in our home it was just my oldest daughter, Solanna, and me while everyone else was at school and work. I’ve basically had a month with either me or my kids battling a kick-butt upper respiratory virus. Ugh. So, after helping everyone else get ready and shuttled off, I returned home ready to write and have my breakfast. As I was making myself an Americano I began to belt out, “Coffee for you, coffee for me, coffee, coffee, coffee for the family...” You see, I cleverly took Adam Sandler’s Turkey Song and substituted coffee. As I was reveling in the genius of my new song, it occurred to me that I was probably annoying my sick Solee on the couch. Then I thought, “Wait a minute, am I just singing this to annoy her in the first place? Or am I this obnoxious when I’m alone?” I really couldn’t discern whether I was having a fun private moment and just remembered Solanna was there, or if I was purposefully (badly) entertaining my sick daughter. That led me to reflect on the whole domain of private thoughts. We have a lot of private thoughts throughout the day, but how aware are we of their content? Much of the time, we just kind of move through our thinking without really thinking about our thinking. Or is that just me? If we are thinking obviously sinful thoughts, I’m sure we are much more mindful about it. But what about all the junk that we process in our heads throughout the day? What kind of filter do we have for that? (And this is no admission that my awesome coffee song should be moved to the trash bin!) What I’m getting at here is a call to examine our thought life for value. What do you think about throughout your day? Is your thought life congruent with your speech? Is it harmonious to your family life, your work life, and your social life? How good is your thinking filter? Do you actively think a lot, or do you just seem to react to your distractions throughout your day? This is something to think about. One thing that blogging has done is to force me to be more purposeful with my thoughts. Take my coffee song for example. I was having a fun moment, but somehow my silly song led me to think about the value of private thinking. Sometimes, it’s the opposite for me: I will think I’m having a deep thought and realize that it’s actually just self-centered. I really believe in the subtitle of this blog: The Gospel Interrupting the Ordinary. Sometimes when I’m thinking, and especially when I’m writing, I ask myself how this situation points to the gospel. How can I proclaim Christ’s work in this particular instance? How does that change things? All this talk about thinking reminds me of a tongue-twister my mom made up when she was very young: One cannot think without a thought to think about. For a thought must have a thinker, and a thinker a thought, To think it out!