“We are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ”
(II Corinthians 10:5)
As I am writing this blog, a category 5 hurricane named Dorian is heading toward Florida and the east coast. Presently it is plummeting the Bahamas. People are busy stocking up on supplies, or evacuating all together. No one wants to experience a hurricane. I remember one time we were visiting Reid’s parents in Maryland when one came up the east coast. It wasn’t terrible, but it was an experience I have no desire to repeat.
Every day has the potential to bring unwanted and unexpected storms in our lives. These storms are sometimes weather related; sometimes circumstance related. But there is another kind of storm that I would like to address this week. These are the storms caused by drama. Drama is a performance that results in turbulence and high emotion. Drama can come from other people, but let’s be honest, many times we create our own drama. How we do this is simple. We do this through the thoughts we think about ourselves, as well as others.
Every one of us preaches a gospel of some sort to ourselves every day. I will go so far as to say that each of us is the most influential person we have in our life. We think far too much about ourselves. Who we are. What we do. What our strengths are. What our weaknesses are. What others think of us. What we think of God. I could go on, but you get the point.
We can conjure up all sorts of upsetting notions in our minds. Notions that convince ourselves something is true when it is not. Notions telling ourselves no one cares, or persuading ourselves that we should be afraid. Then there are the notions about how incapable we are, or maybe even convincing ourselves that we’re stupid. How about the number of times we have run through our thought process the lie that God doesn’t love us, or that he is punishing us? And I won’t even begin to address all the judging of others that rambles about in our heads.
Then there are the thoughts we process over life’s circumstances. What pondering do you do when you are physically ill, or someone is disloyal to you? What do you think when life just seems harder and more unfair than you think it should be? How about when your dreams sail off into the sunset without you? What sort of gospel do you preach to yourself then?
Drama is like hurricane Dorian, especially when the source of the drama is from our own mind. It churns in our thoughts and ruins our peaceful existence. I heard it said once that some people create their own storms then get mad when it rains. It may well be the worse drama queen is the one churning in our head. The good news is that God’s grace can help us preach truth to ourselves in those moments when no one is talking to us but us.
Darlene