Thinking Through the Thoughts that Pass

Passing Thoughts

What causes a thought, in passing, to linger and influence our thinking for a day, a year, or a lifetime?

What slows it down so that it can have an impact? How do we harness those thoughts to propel deeper and broader thinking on almost any subject? Do we sit with it a while? Do we look under the rug? Do we mull it over? Do we ask it questions?

Through the years I have collected short topics, quotes, excerpts from myself and others. Social media posts, notes on napkins, little reminders of words, triggers, and ideas have been inscribed with pen, pencil, or digital tools to remember, reflect, and renew my thinking.

Some days, like today, I pull them out, put them in a document, look them over, share and reshare, recollect, and redistribute.

Is there anything here that triggers anything for you?

Never assume that two unrelated thoughts are unrelated. Never assume randomness. Explore and connect, Be astounded.

"Why fit in when you were born to stand out?" - Dr. Suess

“It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish.” - J. R. R. Tolkien, "The Lord of the Rings"

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” - J. R. R. Tolkien, "The Lord of the Rings"

“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door…You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.” - J. R. R. Tolkien, "The Lord of the Rings"

“A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.” - C.S. Lewis

"God isn't an editor, He's a creator. He's not looking for typos in our lives, He celebrates our joy in them." - Bob Goff

"Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness." - Desmond Tutu

"Peace is not a destination; it is a way. Not an end, but a cause." - Nicole Lewis

"Every positive change begins with a clear, unequivocal decision that you are going to either do something or stop doing something" - John Assaraf

"Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do" —Leonardo da Vinci

The single greatest -people skill' is a highly developed and authentic interest in the *other* person." - Bob Burg

"I dwell in possibility." - Emily Dickinson

"Emotional maturity is the ability to keep your focus on the other's feelings even as you acknowledge and honor your own." - Bob Burg

"Worship... is not something a person experiences, it is something we do, regardless of how we feel about it." - Eugene Peterson

" Have regard for the covenant,
for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.
Let not the downtrodden turn back in shame;
let the poor and needy praise your name."
-Psalm 74:20-21 ESV

"Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
forsake me not when my strength is spent."
- Psalm 71:9 ESV

"...I fear that for too many Christians, 'personal salvation' has become another personal consumer product (like personal computers, a personal journal, personal time, etc.) and Christianity has become its marketing program." - -Brian Mclaren, "A Generous Orthodoxy

"Forgiveness without conviction is not forgiveness; it is irresponsible toleration. It doesn't lead to reconciliation and peace; it leads to chaos." -Brian Mclaren, "A Generous Orthodoxy

"The Cross of Christ means that the salvation of God goes deeper down than the deepest depths of iniquity man can commit. No man can get beyond the reach of Jesus: He made a way back to the throne of God from the very heart of hell by His tremendous Atonement." --Oswald Chambers

"You can accept Jesus, you can reject Jesus, but you cannot reasonably ignore him." - M. Scott Peck

“No man can adequately reach and explain a single word of God with all his words.” --Brennan Manning

"When you are offended at any man's fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger" — Epictetus

-----------------------

The only thing that is consistently predictable in the universe is the consistent persistence of chaos...

And in that, we behold the emergence of divine order at a magnitude that stretches our minds ...

Beyond their capacity.

-----------------------

Just when you think you have stomped out and snuffed out the good, God has the last word.

"God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified." - Acts 2:36b

-----------------------

When you pray and work for peace, you might actually get some. Take what you can get and keep praying and working. You may be able to partner with God for a generation or two.

And the land had rest forty years." - Judges 5:31

-----------------------

One day God did something new, dramatic, and unexplainable.

That means, there was not a box to put it in with a neat little definition to label it.

The response divided the onlookers into amazed gawkers and name-callers.

Now, the gawkers had all sorts of possibilities going forward, with a full range of options, choices, and opportunities.

The name-callers had few. They were staking our their territory through fear, contempt, or prejudice to one end: that by defining the new group and movement and by explaining its motivation and empowerment, they could shut off all chances of understanding it or embracing the truth of it.

I don't suppose this could happen today; could it?

" And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others mocking said, “'They are filled with new wine.'” -Acts 2:12-13 ESV

-----------------------

Incarnation is hard. Incarnational ministry and presence is harder still.

It was hard for Jesus.

It is hard for us.

Our eyes must adjust to seeing from everyone's point of view, feeling the pain of all sides, calling forth intercession, glimpsing divine and eternal perspective, knowing that others do not and cannot know and feel what you know and feel.

God did it and does it and invites us to share a piece of the action.

That depolarizes us and unnerves us and takes away all sorts of safe hiding places where we might retreat. Jesus had no name that any could understand to define or confine him, so he most often called himself, "Son of Man."

That is incarnation and it calls for identification with all suffering and allows for no comfort zone with which to label oneself.

-----------------------

What is common ground and why do we need to cultivate it? Finding common ground never means having to surrender the ground where you feel you must stand based upon principle. It is finding and recognizing the ground you share that overlaps the irreducible minimums of core beliefs. More so, it is recognizing and respecting the human beings who share that ground and finding language to communicate commonalities as well as uniqueness.

For the "good-news-ist" (evangelist) it means finding and exercising an opportunity, with integrity, to communicate our good news and listening to the message of the other. The antithesis is answering questions our neighbor has not asked or assuming presuppositions that they do not hold. Our words fall on deaf ears and interactions create an atmosphere that is opposite of the Kingdom of God.

-----------------------

God of hope in the midst of explosive sounds around us, may we refuse to be broken by breaking news.

May we only be broken by Your tender touch upon our hearts and the brokenness of those for whom You are broken.

In our own brokenness, may we not be shaken.

As we are dismantled by time and circumstance, may we be reassembled as a people who are useful in your mission of healing and grace.

May we remain pliable and reliable, gracious and sweet even when the world around us is filled with bitterness and the stench of decay.

We would be all that we can be and more that Your reputation for putting people together would continue to be a testament of grace and possibility.

-----------------------

There is no substitute for thinking.

Feelings pass; urges do what urges do

And are gone.

How and what we think is cumulative and

Restorative

and 

Transformative

and

Alive in ways we cannot describe.

We think and we are as the Frenchman said.

We put on a mind greater than our own a Romans Rabbi once said

and

We think on things that are wholesome and good.

Think

Because, in thinking, we begin to know

and

In knowing, we begin to grow 

and

In growing we begin to become

and 

In becoming, we beget more

and

We are fully alive.

The idea is the logos and it is from the beginning

and

Before the beginning. 

God brings forth the idea and the idea brings us

To God.