In the past couple of months I have felt a little overwhelmed by the enormity of evil and general chaos, environmental damage, social injustice that seems to prevail in every direction I look. I have been thinking about how two key Biblical teachings on personal disciplines, turn out to be also very sound advice endorsed by the ‘evidence’ base of scientific studies.
The first of these is in Philippians 4:8 – “Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”
The idea of fixing our thoughts suggests a very intentional focus/ attention and changing my pattern of thinking, which is exactly the focus found in the therapeutic method endorsed by psychology called Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. This is approach suggests that we can use a new lens on life at a time of persisting sadness and negative thoughts and seek to find the positive in the circumstances and events of our own lives.
The second is the injunction to give thanks in all circumstances. There are many verses inviting us to be thankful, 1 Thessalonians 5:18 is one of them.
Being grateful is also now recognised as an important personal discipline for positive mental well-being by people like Martin Seligman and many others – and the Bible has been banging on about this for millenia!
Giving intentional focus to things that are good and noble, and choosing to look for signs of resistance to the pervasive powers of injustice, as well as taking time to list things that I can be thankful for, are disciplines I can manage most days. At the moment I’m choosing not to read depressing or difficult books and I am looking out for weekend movies that are not dark. These life disciplines don’t mean I am a perpetual joy germ for Jesus but at the moment, more importantly – they help me get out of bed and get going on the work I need to do today.
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