Set your mind on good things ...

Wednesday, January 16, 2013. Where are our thoughts going today? Depending on the environment, your thought might go here or there. Perhaps you had a very beautiful evening yesterday … and your thoughts are still filled with the nice conversations you had.

What is in your thoughts? …

It can be that you are still filled with nice memories about your Christmas holiday. But it can also be that your mind is full of challenges and sorrow. Perhaps you are still mourning about sad things which happened to you. Or you are filled with anger about injustice which you experience in your job or your school. Many things can fill our thoughts!

Sometimes, things which fill our thoughts can show quite some power. Things come again and again. It is difficult to get rid of some thoughts. They stay, and you are drawn into a storm, into a dance around one topic, which seems unstoppable. Our thoughts are caught in a circle, in a prison of either anger or sadness or fear. It seems we cannot escape. It seems we have no power to stop our own mind to lead us to walk in a circle, again and again …

Sometimes I ask myself: why do we not learn how to deal with our thoughts? We learn how to calculate, in school. We learn how to write. But why do we not learn how to think? Sometimes, mathematics is considered as a school of thinking, of concepts and abstraction. To some extent it is. Sometimes, philosophy is considered as a school of thinking. But it has very particular traditional topics. It does not show us how to control our thoughts and conduct them in to a good direction!

Set your mind …

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It is interesting that the New Testament talks about our mind and our thoughts. It talks about the discipline, to guide our own mind and our thoughts. It talks about good directions for our mind and our heart! In Colossians we read:

1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is youra life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3: 1-4)

It is important to set our mind and our heart on the right things. We can be drawn into bad thoughts so easily. But when we practice to set our mind on good things every day, we can learn to avoid the negative thoughts, which do not lead us anywhere. We can find good solutions to the challenges of our daily routine, or to the special challenges, which come occasionally. The New Testament provides perfect input to keep us going into a good direction. We have the opportunity to use it day by day, and stay on a good track! ... more texts