Applied Thinking

Thinking has become a lost art.  In times past, there were people -- great scientists, composers, theologians, politicians -- who, it seems, spent their entire lives thinking, and today we enjoy the benefits of their minds' labors.  But in these times, to sit down in some quiet place and apply one's mind to a particular subject for even several minutes is excruciatingly difficult.  What has changed?

Is our generation (save a select few) just less capable of great thoughts than the men of old?  I say no, at least not by nature -- the greatest thinkers of years past only used a tiny percentage of their brains' capacity, and even if the human race has deteriorated in the last few hundred years, our brains still have capacity for even more than the musings of our ancestors.  Indeed, in our time, we have far more opportunities to learn and study than they had.  But on the whole, our advantages have crippled us.  In today's culture, computers, cell phones, or a few especially brainy people will think for us -- we don't have to, so we don't.  Our fast-paced lives don't give us time for it anyway.

Clearly, it will take work to rebuild a thriving mind.  But the ability to focus, understand, and think worthwhile thoughts is a reward well worth the training.  Thoughts matter, because they are the foundation of our lives.  So what can be done?  Here I pose a few suggestions, as much for myself as anyone (if you know me, you may hold me to it) -- for as the recent lack of life on my blog will testify, I myself too often succumb to apathy of the mind, a most frustrating ailment.

Start small.
Grab a colorful leaf and get to know its every detail.  Marvel at a spider's web.  Ponder the little things, for in them God has hidden great secrets.
Memorize.
A chapter of the Bible, a poem, a song . . . something you can think about all day and all night.  Know it intimately, at face value and beyond.
Read.
Take advantage of the thoughts of the great thinkers, even if you're not "a reader."  Pick up the train of thought where they left off, and keep going!
Be specific.
If you don't give it an assignment, your mind will wander off into trouble like a naughty child.  Choose a passion, a particular subject, and study it.
Take time.
Just do it -- think!  Meditate on one topic, no interruptions, for more than sixty seconds.  Be alert, and take every thought captive (2 Corinthians 10:5).
Share.
Talk about what's on your mind, big or small.  Write about it.  You have not learned something until you can teach it.  Think to impact other lives.

And I could go on.  It's just discipline, so simple, yet so hard to do.  We get bored far too easily, when there is so much truth to be explored.  God gave you a brain -- use it!  It must be exercised to be strong.  Let us strive for applied thinking, and applied thinking -- applying our minds to worthwhile thoughts, then applying those thoughts to our daily lives.

"As nothing is more easy than to think, so nothing is more difficult than to think well."
~Thomas Traherne