Fighting the Fires of Dangerous Thoughts.Sample

Have you ever played out conversations in your head? Like, if you’re expecting a confrontation with someone, you feel the need to rehearse it out in your head. So, you say what you want to say and then you respond on the other person’s behalf, but it doesn’t go how you wanted (even though it’s literally one sided), and you get all worked up. And what happens? Maybe you avoid that person, or you’re upset with them, all because of this hypothetical conversation in your head. The human brain is fascinating.

What about thinking ourselves into a tailspin over outcomes of circumstances—like thinking about every possible thing that could go wrong or thinking of the “what ifs.”

I put up a firepit in our backyard, and I remember the first fire we started in it. When it was time to come in for the night, I couldn’t get the fire to go out to save my life. And before I knew it, we were basically in a windstorm with the weather—gusts of winds that were crazy, shaking the house and all. I knew that I couldn’t leave that fire going in the pit so I went out with a little glass of water to pour it over the smolders, but the wind was picking up the ashes and blowing them all over the yard. I didn’t want to leave it unsupervised and have a spark fly out and catch the ground on fire. So, here I am—six gigantic bowls of water later (because I didn’t think I needed the hose)—and it still didn’t extinguish it. The thing smoldered all night long.

Our thoughts can be just like a fire. They can smolder for a long time and just smoke, but if a wind comes along, it can pick that smolder up and spark something quickly. Metaphorically, a wind can be an argument, an unmet expectation, a disappointment, a cross word, or a piece of gossip. And it builds quickly, and then it escalates into a bonfire.

Whether we realize it or not, whatever swirls in our head, is what comes out of our mouth. I think this is why God commands us to take our thoughts captive for Christ. Because if they run loose, they run wild. Today, may our thoughts be focused on the power of the Cross and all that’s possible through it.