This blog post is about to reveal a lesson that I learned over the summer. But, I learned these lessons the hard way. So, the point of today is to warn you all about a danger that I ran right into, that way, you will be able to take preventative measures and avoid my mistakes.
Here’s what the problem is: thoughts. Now, you may be wondering why this is such a big deal, since thoughts just stay in your head, obviously. Well, I have discovered quite the opposite: thoughts are the roots for absolutely everything, both good and evil.
A good friend and I are currently studying Jeremiah and we came to an interesting conclusion while reading Jeremiah 13:15-27, which is entitled “A Warning Against Pride” in my NLT Bible. First off, in this passage, we realized that God’s biggest “pet peeves” were not outward displays of evil, but seemingly subtle things, like arrogance (v. 15) and lust (v. 27). These sins that God seemed to despise so much were in the mind, not outwardly displayed.
Then, my friend and I started to discuss an interesting idea: God hates these types of sins because they are the roots to all other sins. To continue exploring our idea, my friend and I flipped to a yucky passage, Galatians 5:19-20, that I like to nickname the Anti-Fruits of the Spirit.
Here it is,
“When you follow the desires of your sinful, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these.”
Did you see what all of those have in common? My friend and I did, and we got pretty excited, because it’s a whole new angle of looking at God's word.
All of these sins have a common root: the mind. And that’s the reason why the Bible has SO MUCH commentary about pride, lust, jealousy, and other sins that don’t seem to be “visible”; God knows that we need to aim for the root first to conquer our sins. This is why thoughts are so vital.
Jesus also discussed this phenomenon in this infamous passage:
“You have heard the commandment that says, ‘You must not commit adultery.’ But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
Matthew 5:27-28
If adultery can start in the mind, what else can? The possibilities are endless and it’s terrifying. But, how do we defeat Satan’s weapons of mass destruction within our brains?
Well, while I was facing my own mind battles this summer, I began to think about a fantastic song by one of my favorite bands, Twenty One Pilots. This song actually presents a very clear solution to the problems at hand. First, here's a bit of background: I had known about this song for about a year, but about a month ago, my brother shed new light on the lyrics, explaining how they seemed closely connected to concepts about God and His saving grace in our thought lives. This isn’t a surprise, as the lead singer of the band, Tyler Joseph, is a professed Christian. The song is entitled “Addict with a Pen” and it comes from Twenty One Pilot’s self-titled debut album. The chorus starts out,
“Hello
We haven't talked in quite some time
I know
I haven't been the best
Of sons
Hello
I've been traveling in
The desert of my mind
And I
Haven't found a drop
Of life
I haven't found a drop
Of you
I haven't found a drop
I haven't found a drop
Of water”
That line, “traveling in the desert of my mind” is such a potent image. You’ve probably felt it as I have. Not only are destructive thought patterns dangerous, but they also engulf us, become a horrible, addictive reality for us, very comparable to a desert. In many ways, thoughts can become an idol. We can build various “mind shrines” in our brains, ultimately worshipping our sin-filled, unbridled thoughts by obsessing over them.
So, we end up wandering through the deserts of our minds, looking for some type of sustenance. But, sin is death, so naturally, we won’t find “a drop of life” or “of you” (God) amongst it all. Towards the end of this emotion-filled song, TOP presents us with the ultimate solution of it all:
“But you specialize in dying
You hear me screaming
Father
And I'm lying here just crying
So wash me with your water”.
This is the solution that will conquer the darkness in our minds: being washed by God’s grace and love. More specifically, the solution to the thought battles is cleansing our minds with Him. Notice that at the beginning of “Addict with a Pen”, Tyler Joseph says, “Hello, we haven’t talked in quite some time. I know I haven’t been the best of sons…”
We cleanse our minds by doing what the hypothetical speaker in the song didn't do: spending time with God (“talking” to Him). "Spending time with God" could involve delving into His word to renew our minds (Romans 12:2) or even serving others for His glory and our fulfillment (Proverbs 11:25). If we are doing this, then we won’t resort to wandering in the deserts of our minds.
Yes, this is all so cliché. But, it makes perfect sense, as God's ways always do. See, if we develop a deep relationship with God and stick with Him, even when we aren’t “emotionally inclined” to do so, He will present us with mini-solutions along the way, that are specific to each of our unique problems. In response to my personal struggles, He prompted me to cut out certain TV shows and habits. Often, these things weren’t even inherently bad, but they were triggers for me to turn inward, to my “mind shrines”.
Even though these decisions in my life appeared to be acts of deprivation, in the end, they weren’t. Making choices as God prompts us aren’t His ways of punishing us or taking away things that we enjoy. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. He wants us to have lives full of joy and purpose (John 10:10), so He will give us the conviction and strength to remove anything that inhibits us from living the lives He wants for each of us. And that makes the difficult and often painful removal process all worth it.
But, at the end of the day, even when we do mess up or get lost in the desert, we don't need to be afraid. He will always reach down and pick us up again with endless grace and love, when we call out to Him, our Father.
