Losing My Mind?

A new Christian asked me the other day what has helped me the most change my life over the last 20 years of following Jesus? I was totally unprepared for this kind of question! My mind went blank at first and then started scrolling through all these great Christian clichés; God's love, the awesomeness of the cross, memorizing scripture, reading the Bible, going to church, serving others, helping people on their journeys, being in community....how do I pick just one? All of these things were foundational in my faith! In an instant of clarity, it came to me! What have I had to do daily, over and over, sometimes minute by minute to change my way of thinking, to break free of my past, and to have victory over the enemy? "Capturing my thoughts"!

To be honest, most of the time I feel like I am losing my mind. The struggle is real and fierce to not let negative thoughts overwhelm the truth of the cross. The noise and distraction of the world bombard me with so many things contrary to what I know God wants for my life. It is easy and comfortable to fall into the cycle of being critical of everyone around me, especially my family. It's more natural to place blame and find fault with my workplace, the church, the government, Ebola carriers, traffic cameras, bad parents, the education system, bank bailouts, and everything else in between. 

I have a choice on how I am going to think and what filter I'm going to use to respond. If left to my own devices, I would give into my fears and critical nature. I would run around screaming, "The sky is falling!" and rip apart everyone from the McDonalds cashier who can't take my order correctly to my husband who can't seem to get his calendar organized.

But when I said yes to following Jesus I knew I could not trust my own stinking thinking. I knew the person I was in my past was not the person I wanted to become. I knew that in order to change my thoughts I had to "capture" them. What does this really mean? How do I put this into practice? Literally, when a negative, ugly or critical thought comes into my mind, I stop and start praying it away. I try to replace it with a truth I have learned from God's word, maybe even quote scripture. Sometimes, I ask God to take it out of my brain by reminding me of a positive memory to replace it. I also have been known to talk to myself, "Lord, change my heart, change my attitude, and help me not kill anyone." (Repeat as needed, even if it’s over and over again within a few minutes).

Does this always work? NOOOOO! I also make the choice to not capture my thoughts and give in to my fears, frustrations, anger, and critical nature. Usually, this does not turn out so well and I have to go back and apologize to someone. When I listen to lies and untruths it is easy to become overwhelmed, depressed, doubtful, and foolish! The cycle of letting my thoughts run amok is addicting and difficult to break once I get rolling. It’s amazing how fast relationships start breaking down when people sit in the "crappy" thinking for too long. Your viewpoint of God can even start changing and that leads to nowhere good!

So to answer my friend's question, one of the things that have helped me the most in my life is capturing my thoughts! Otherwise I could see myself losing my mind :)

"We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ." 

2 Cor 10:5