THE CONTRIBUTION OF ‘CHRISTIAN THINKING’ TO RESTRUCTURING DESTRUCTIVE THOUGHTS

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The Bible and ‘thinking’

The Bible is an important book for Christians. “The Christian Bible can be seen as the most important religious book for a Christian believer, a book whose words are intended presumably to form and shape that person’s life” (Andreescu 2012:30). “…its inspired teachings allow us to develop a cohesive and defensible worldview from which we can speak to any subject or issue in our lives and culture. The Christian faith, therefore, is personal. It speaks of a life lived in relationship with God, in the wholeness of our being – intellect, emotions, and will” (Cosgrove 2006:28) A pastoral theology of thought must recognize our responsibility for choosing when and what we think, and how we express these in actions. The following Bible passages stress the importance of Christian thinking: Matthew 22:37 (NIV) “Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind;” and Romans 12:2 (NIV) “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will”. “In Matt 22:3-40, we are told to love God not only with our hearts and souls but also with our minds. Jesus’ words refer to the wholehearted devotion to God with every aspect of our being, from whatever angle we choose to consider it – emotionally, volitionally, or cognitively. This kind of love for God results in taking every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ (2 Cor 10:5). A wholehearted devotion to distinctively Christian thinking. This means being able to see life from a Christian vantage point; it means thinking with the mind of Christ” (Dockery & Thornbury 2002:3).

What does it mean to think like a Christian?

As humans we have the capacity to think, this is what sets us apart from the rest of the created world. But, what does it mean to think like a Christian? And what specific role do our thoughts play in our Christian lives? What type of thinking would benefit us in our search for personal meaning and spiritual wholeness? As Christians, we are to strive to have the mind of Christ and to live by the principles of the “Word of God.”. The Christian faith holds to a belief system that has a significant effect on one’s entire life. “Thus, faith cannot be separated from ordinary ways of learning or made into a separate, detached, religious learning process. This means that faith cannot be considered an anti-intellectual, spiritual journey to knowing truth but that it is an intellectual and personal journey into areas within and beyond our understanding. Faith should not be considered a separate, unusual form of “otherworldly” knowing that bypasses traditional knowledge but one that participates in all our normal ways of knowing” (Cosgrove 2006:37). Dockery & Thornbury (2002:4) states that to think wrongly about God is idolatry (Ps 50:21); and that to think rightly about God is eternal life (John 17:3). The latter should be the believer’s life objective (Jer 9:23-24). “Right thinking” is a central tenet of the Christian faith.

As Christians, we are taught that even though we are fallen creatures (i.e. the story of the Fall) God intervened to restore us to himself through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Conversion takes place when we turn to God in faith. Hollinger (2005:39) writes, “The word for repentance in the NT

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(metanoia) literally means to change one’s mind, and this is a significant part of conversion. Of course conversion always involves more than the mind, but without the mind there is no true conversion”. The head/mind plays a vital role in conversion. The Apostle Paul showed us that coming to faith in Christ is a process that always involves both head and heart, “if you confess with your lips…” (Romans 10). This confessing with the lips involves a public declaration and a cognitive dimension. Hollinger (2005:40) writes, “It is not merely a feeling one has about Christ or even a will to follow him in life. There is certain content that is embraced – “Jesus is Lord”. To affirm cognitively that Jesus is Lord doesn’t bring salvation, but without it there is no salvation”.

Transformation and growth

Being a Christian is much more than just a personal, private relationship with God. It influences every aspect of your life and how you relate to others, including how you think and structure your thoughts. But just as the mind and our thoughts play a role in coming to Christ, so too do they play a role in growing in grace and living out the life of Christ. Christian growth is an experience in growing closer to the living God and thereby being transformed into divine likeness. Hollinger (2005:41) says a key element in that transformative process is our thinking. He explains that transformation and growth doesn’t come only by understanding more of the Bible or having greater insights of theology. The renewing of our minds will never be a purely cognitive enterprise. But, we need biblically informed thought for transformation. Therefore, what goes into the mind is a significant part of this transformation process, e.g. If we fill our minds with things that dishonour God, others and self (i.e. sin) we will reap negative results in our affections and actions. If we fill our minds with the good things of God, mediated through his Word, we will reap a “harvest of righteousness” (Phil 1:11) in all dimensions of life (Hollinger 2005:41). Spirituality and Christian growth are not primarily an inward reality, but how we think here also plays a key role. Hollinger (2005:42) explains, “With the mind we understand something of the triune God we follow in life. With the mind we understand the patterns, designs, virtues and key spiritual disciplines that go into the spiritual growth process. And with the mind there is an actual direction and empowerment toward that process. Because ideas have consequences, the head clearly is vital to the Christian life, as it impacts both the affectional and behavioural dimensions of life”.

In the light of the above passages it becomes clear that the contribution of ‘Christian thinking’ to restructuring destructive thoughts entails much more than mere cognition. A Christian worldview takes every thought captive to the lordship of Jesus Christ (Dockery & Thornbury 2002:15) thus directing the believer’s entire life.

Developing a Christian mind and worldview

In a previous section I described that everyone has a worldview. Sometimes we become so absorbed in the environment around us that we don’t see the effect of such a secular worldview on our spirituality and

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thoughts. Dockery & Thornbury (2002:2) states: “Some worldviews are incoherent, being merely a smorgasbord of options from natural, supernatural, pre-modern, modern, and postmodern options. An examined and thoughtful worldview, however, is more than a private personal viewpoint; it is a comprehensive life system that seeks to answer the basic questions of life”. A Christian worldview will help to ‘think more Christianly’ and live out the truth of Christian faith. Dockery & Thornbury (2002:12) describe a Christian worldview as “not just one’s personal faith expression, not just a theory. It is an all consuming way of life, applicable to all spheres of life. A Christian worldview is not just piety added to secular thinking, nor is it merely research that takes place in a Christian environment”. In a Christian worldview, there is a definite Christian view of things. A Christian worldview also acknowledges that God is the sovereign and almighty. “A Christian worldview becomes a driving force in life, giving us a sense of God’s plan and purpose for this world. Our identity is shaped by this worldview. We no longer see ourselves as alienated sinners. A Christian worldview is not escapism but is an energizing motivation for godly and faithful thinking and living in the here and now. It also gives us confidence and hope for the future. In the midst of life’s challenges and struggles, a Christian worldview helps to stabilize, anchoring us to God’s faithfulness and steadfastness” (Dockery & Thornbury 2002:12).

What happens when thinking is neglected in Christian thought and life? What does a faith with very little thinking produce? Faith with very little thinking produces an “incomplete faith” (Hollinger 2005:58) because we are called to love God with all our mind (Matthew 22:37 (NIV) “Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind”). “A faith without the mind tends to be a shallow and ill equipped to cope with the inevitable realities and hard questions of life. Headless Christians usually resort to a faith dominated by feelings alone and become spiritually dependent on their own emotional state or on a series of peak “spiritual experiences” which they seek to continually replicate” (Hollinger 2005:58). Therefore, without the mind, faith will not be sustained, “for it will lack a compass, a grounded worlview and the motivations and sustaining guidance necessary for facing life’s challenges and disappointments” (Hollinger 2005:58).

The ongoing use of the mind

The ongoing use of the mind is a key factor in its growth. Our thinking is nurtured by studying Scripture, Christian worldview issues and theological understandings (Hollinger 2005:68). “Without cognitive reflection, there is a tendency to view the world in either – or categories, unable to recognize and sort through the complexity of reality. Thus it will be difficult to view culture in such way that one can discern to those elements that are compatible with Christian faith, those that are clearly incompatible, and those that are somewhere in between” (Hollinger 2005:72). “A Christian worldview is needed to confront an ever changing culture. Instead, of allowing our thoughts to be captive to culture, we must take every thought captive to Jesus Christ” (Dockery & Thornbury 2002:12). Williams (2002:18) writes, Christians “do not want to be schizophrenic in their thinking. Rather, they want their whole mind to

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revolve around their Christian beliefs”. “They want to avoid inconsistencies that seep into their thinking due to immersion in a secular culture and they want to connect what they know to be the basic truths of Christianity – that God created everything, that humans have sinned against God, and that God has provided a way to be redeemed from sin”.

We must realize the work of God in our minds and pay attention to what a ‘Christ like’ mind might look like. As our saviour has said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matt 22:37). To do this, we need to keep at developing a Christian mind.

Cross and the resurrection

Jesus’ death on the cross for our salvation is absolutely central to the Christian faith. On the cross, Jesus made atonement for the sins of the world and opened the way for fallen, sinful, rebellious, mankind to be brought back into a right relationship with God. This is “Atonement”. Through Jesus’ crucifixion, mankind, separated from God by sin, is re-united with God and they are made one again (Summerall 2009:122). By-holding the cross and the resurrection together in one theological vision, Christian thinking can be both one of compassion and one of dynamic restoration. Both aspects are essential to a faithful witness to the nature of God. Ministries that sustain in inspiring ways as they heal in meaningful ways witness to the grace of God. They give expression to an integral mission of the God who suffers with and for, and who gives life in this existence and beyond what we can here know. This proposal points in the direction of a theology of wholeness which combines a theology of the cross and a theology of the resurrection (Underwood 2006:11).

Christian understanding of God

Christian faith and spirituality call for the significance and appropriateness of a Christian understanding of God. But how should God be interpreted and portrayed in Christian Spirituality? What God-images are fitting for the Christian counselee? Though the human race fell into sin and human thinking was marred and distorted, we continue to reflect the image of God by our ability to think (Hollinger 2005:37). At a spiritual level, suffering unmasks inappropriate God-images. Fundamentally, suffering thus becomes a ‘theological’ issue (Louw 2000:11). Not all that results from suffering is negative. Suffering can also generate patience and endurance (Louw 2000:11).

Thinking to discover meaning

One significant motive for thinking is to discover meaning. We want to know our place in the universe, in history, and in society. We want to discover values by which we can judge the importance of what we do. We desire to know what the significance of our life is. And although Christians have a sense of this significance, they want to know how everything else is connected to it (Williams 2002:23). A worldview must seek to answer questions like: where did we come from? Who are we? What has gone wrong with

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the world? What solution can be offered to fix it? (Dockery & Thornbury 2002:3). It must seek to answer the key questions of life. A Christian worldview offers a new way of thinking and doing, based on a new way of being. It also provides a framework for ethical thinking. “Fear about the future, suffering, disease, and poverty are informed by a Christian worldview grounded in the redemptive work of Christ and the grandeur of God. As opposed to the meaningless and purposeless nihilistic perspectives of F Nietzsche, E Hemingway, or J. Cage, a Christian worldview offers meaning and purpose for all aspects of life” (Dockery & Thornbury 2002:10).

God knows our thoughts

God knows our thoughts (Ps 94:11; 139:2). Jesus knew what people were thinking (Mt 9:4; 12:25; Mk 12:15; Lk 11:17). How you perceive God in your thoughts determines everything else in your life. The Apostle Paul is showing us in (2 Cor 10:4, 5) where the greatest warfare of the Christian life really takes place – the mind. We all develop habits of thought that contradict the Word of God (fear, worry, anger, bitterness, sexual sin, greed, elfishness, laziness). Are your thoughts focused on the things of God and His way of dealing with the issues you are facing? Or are you thinking on thoughts of anger, frustration, bitterness, anxiety and so forth? When problems do come, we face them with the Word and the Spirit of God, and we overcome them rather than being overcome by them. We have a new way of thinking, a new way of acting, a new outlook on life, and new strength and power. Spiritual and mental change occurs as we renew our minds. Therefore, stop the flow of toxic thinking and fill your mind with the truth of God’s Word, the beauty of creation and the encouragement of God’s people. We still have to fight for the victory over the negative thoughts that can fill our minds and control our lives. “Thus Christian thinking must surely subordinate all other endeavours to the improve of the mind in pursuit of truth, taking every thought captive to Jesus Christ (2 Cor 10:5). As three places in the book of 2 Cor, Paul reminds us that we cannot presume that our thinking is Christ centered. In 2 Cor 3:14, we learn that the minds of the Israelites were hardened. In 4:4 Paul says that the unregenerate mind is blinded by the god of this world. In 11:3 the apostle says that Satan has ensnared the Corinthians’ thoughts. So in 10:5, he calls for all our thinking to be liberated by coming under the lordship of Christ” (Dockery & Thornbury 2002:14).

One reason why we cling to our old habits of thinking is because they keep us in our comfort zone, even if that means blocking our ability to heal. Secondary gain is the term psychologists use to describe the payoff people get from clinging to a false belief that reinforces a particular pattern of behaviour or negative thought process. The belief allows you to stay in familiar territory but it threatens your ability to get well. A lazy negative mind comes naturally, but a sound disciplined mind takes work. And it is worth working on. Nothing, including the mind, gets better on its own.

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4.4. DESTRUCTIVE THINKING: TOWARDS A HOLISTIC APPROACH IN SPIRITUAL