Thinking Hard So I Can Feel Good

I don't want to think, I just want to feel good.

"Our society has replaced heroes with celebrities, the quest for a well-informedcharacter with the search for flat abs, substance and depth with image and personality." (Moreland, J.P.. Love Your God with All Your Mind: The Role of Reason in the Life of the Soul (Kindle Locations 122-123). NavPress. Kindle Edition.)  I'm teaching a class on thinking. J. P. Moreland's book, from which the above quotation is taken, is required reading. In writing a report on the book, I think more students referenced the flat-abs line than anything else. It does capture the mood of our day. Sadly, Moreland isn't only talking about the nonChristian world. He is talking about the church--in particular the Evangelical Church. Go to what used to be called a Christian book-store and you'll get an illustration of the phenomena. There was a time when such shops contained books--serious books, books that one has to work to read. In the end, though, if one takes the time to work through this kind of book it will make one smarter, wiser, and more mature. Now one almost has to ask where the books are located. They tend to get lost behind all the cute figurines and other Gospel kitsch. Look at this cartoon. Linus is right. Sound Theology, and, for that matter, other kinds of sound thinking do make us feel better. You have to work to get there, though. Too many of want to go straight to the feel-good, without ever passing through the work-hard. Thanks, class, for teaching your teacher. It is indeed . . . STTA (Something To Think About).

Deciding

Good conversations lead to clearer understanding, or to put it in Biblical terms, "As iron sharpens so one person sharpens another" (Proverbs 27:17).
One way that conversation brings clarity is by helping to identify common causes for seemingly different trends.
My world is full of new ways of thinking and acting that cause me much concern:

• The erosion of the recognition of the value of human life.
• The failure to clearly make a distinction between the life of a human and that of an animal.
• The changing views on sexuality and marriage.
• etc.

More and more, as I think about these trends, and talk about them with other thoughtful people, I become convinced that a lot of what is happening in my world stems from a basic tendency in the way many--dare I say most?--people in my culture think and decide. 
When I decide what to do there are three categories of information that my mind provides:

1. I seek correct information.  Especially if my decision involvessomething like arithetic, such considerations are incredibly important.  "Do I have enough money to buy this?"  "Is this bigger than I can carry?"  "How much gas will it take?"   This is the most straight-forward kind of thinking I do.  It is the kind of thinking that can most benefit from technology; rulers, calculators, and spreadsheets can be of great benefit.
2. I need to know what I should do.  This is seldom totally clear.  Someone asks me for money to buy some food.
   "Should I help?"
   "If I give money will I support a drug problem?"
   "Do I have time to go into a store with him to buy food?"
   "Should I make time?"
   Sometimes the first category of information provides help with these queries.  But most of the time I find that I don't have, and can't get enough dependable information.  Based on experience, looking to my moral compass, and trusting God, I have to decide what I should do.
3. Finally, there is what I want.
   I like my coffee black.  It's not that it makes more sense to drink it that way.  I'd be hard pressed to come up with a convincing argument that I should drink it that way.  I drink it that way because I like it that way.

As I look around at the problems in the world I see a lot of them related to too may people allowing the third kind of thinking to trump the first two.
It seems to me that some folk think they can change the time the sun will set, just because they want it to be different.
What should be is totally consumed by what I want. 
All decisions take on the character of "Cream or no cream?"
Wanting to flap my wings and fly won't save me if I jump off a cliff.
What I want often is harmful to you--sometimes to a lot of you.
If our world is going to become better more of us will have to be willing to say:
"I can't do what I want.  I just need to get over it."
"I won't do what I want.  It would be wrong."
"When I can do what I want, and there is nothing wrong with it, I'll enjoy it, but, I'll enjoy it with no illusion that the world owes me.

It's Something to Think About.

Getting Rid of the Trash:

Most every Friday something happens that greatly improves my home.  It is not an addition, or a repaint, and it doesn't involve anything new.  The trash truck comes and hauls away several bags of stuff, some of it well on its way to rotten. As I saw the truck go by my picture window this morning my mind went back to a couple of houses I'd been in over my six decades of life.  I remember one where I had to turn sideways to slide betweèn piles of stuff.  I had been to the door of one house a number of times, but when I finally entered I understood why I had never been invited in.  I stepped over a heap of stuff to arrive in the living room.  A good half a pickup truck load of stuff lie between the chair where the lady of the house sat and the TV.  The pile reached to just below the line of sight.  Not only was every other piece of furniture in the room covered--as in at least a foot deep--with paper, etc., but there was no open place big enough for a chair.  I took a chair from the kitchen and put it on the floor furnace.  I was very glad the heat didn't come on.  In another house I was afraid to sit--the chairs were encrusted with well-aged and various remains--and I'll spare you the smell of another that nearly knocked me down. Thankfully my experience with that kind of trash and filth has been limited.  Far and away most houses I have been in have been clean and welcoming.   Not so with many of the lives I have observed.  People hoard trashy and destructive material in their hearts.  In fact everyday, via the internet and other media they pile yet more trash into their minds.  Like real world hoarders, from time to time they will think about cleaning out the mess, they may even throw out a few items, but they soon grow weary, a new temptation distracts them, and they settle back into the filth. I'll not insult you by acting like dealing with such a problem is easy or quick.  It isn't, but it can happen; in fact I'll assure you it will happen if you seriously turn to the Lord. The Lord is in the trash business.  He takes it away.   It's Something to Think About. Explore the Good News here.  A great place to start: