Sometimes seeing a familiar phrase expressed in different words can bring a refreshing perspective. I had this experience recently …
“Taking our thoughts captive,” an idea written about by the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians, is a concept I have encountered a lot lately. My experience of this focus has been a mix of good and bad. One day it crossed my mind to try reading this passage in different words. I was so happy to find this was a great help.
We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:4-5
The Message
In general, I tend to prefer the old formal language of the New King James Bible, but in this instance this modern rendering of a familiar passage enabled me to see it in a different way.
For my very black-and-white brain, taking thoughts “captive” comes across as an act of force; taking charge and wrestling them into submission. Unfortunately, this approach does not yield good results for me.
However, “fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ,” is such a helpful picture. To me this translates to noticing thoughts that need attention and recognizing if they are out of line in any way with God’s truth. (Not all thoughts need attention. Our brains can often churn out thoughts that are best left to come and go on their own.) If the thought that needs attending to is contrary to God’s truth, then we can “fit” it into a Christ-formed shape. Shepherd it, guide it, help it; and do it with our “God-tools.” God’s wisdom given to us, God’s strength poured out in us, God’s redemptive work happening through us.
This different picture took something that was feeling a bit crushing to me and turned it into a hopeful joy to pursue. Because the truth is that the more I make my thoughts my enemy, the more they plague me. But if I can accept them as a part of life that displays both the beautiful and the broken then I can respond to them when it is helpful, disregard them when it is not, and never carry the burden that I have to control them.
A wonderful man I got to meet a few months ago talked about reframing our hard and painful circumstances by first calling them what they are (hard and painful), and then setting them within the frame of an eternal view. God’s view. Our hope.
This seems to me to fall along the same lines as this new picture I have found of what I am going to call “caring for my thoughts”.
And both point so clearly to what is seen over and over again in the Psalms. A struggling, hurting person lamenting the brokenness of life, and then bringing that pain into the light of God’s goodness. Surrendering it to the promise of God’s care.
The Lord is my light and my salvation – so why should I be afraid?
Psalm 27:1
NLT
We think so often of the things we fear as external. But what about the fearful things inside of us? In my experience thoughts certainly fall into this category.
What a comfort and joy to know that God’s light is stronger than any darkness that distresses our troubled minds.
**A wonderful writer I follow shared a beautiful resource recently. All of the Psalms put to music and free to listen to. It’s been a lovely collection to explore.
