a drop of waterDallas Willard on “Special Dangers to our Thought Life with God”
These three points in Dallas Willard’s, Renovation of the Heart helped me process my thought life.
1. Pride and overconfidence in ideas, images, or bits of information simply because they are “ours” or “mine and I am (we are) in the habit of relying on them.
2. Simple ignorance of fact which can be combatted by “constant openness and learning”.
3. Allowing our desires to guide our thinking, especially the desire to prove we are right or have the approval of others in “our crowd”.
I believe that the most competent leaders rely humbly on their advisor’s knowledge and understanding of their fields in order to make judgements. Likewise, God is the expert in any field that we might engage, from programming to cooking, from friendships to romance. We must not let our pride and overconfidence, our habit of relying on our own understanding to skip the cornerstone of relying on God for our ideas, images and information. (We also can not trick ourselves into thinking that God needn’t be bothered or relied on for the simple daily tasks of our lives.)
Always being in a posture of learning (and growth) allows us to make ignorance a motivational fuel instead of a humliating stumbling block. When we apply ourselves to something, whether it be the study of theology or photography or apologetics, we often puff ourselves up as self proclaimed experts. Then we look back down from where we have come, from the top of our hill, and fail to see the mountains all around us that we are called to climb.
It seems really difficult to keep our desires from influencing our thinking. I guess this is partly a result of crowd mentality, where it is easy to conform to the crowd’s movement and direction. We don’t want to be alone in our thoughts, we want community to validate our ideas and thoughts. We become accustomed to the approval of man instead of the approval of God. Sometimes we end up associating the approval of Godly men and women as the approval of God, but that shouldn’t be our goal.
All three of these aspects allow us to leave space for God to speak directly into our lives through our thoughts. With less pride in our own self-reliance, we can rely on God as the expert in everything we attempt to do. With constant openness and learning we can let God break down the wrong ways we’ve been doing things. With seeking approval and rightness in God’s eyes, we allow God to break the pressures and expectations that culture has put on us.
What are some examples of other desires that negatively impact our thinking? I recognize the idea behind desiring to be right overly clouding my ability to see all sides, but how is a distinction made along the lines of thought and prayer? I desire a godly wife, I pray for one, I meet a godly woman, I think “a + b = c?” And of course, sometimes she will be the right one, sometimes she will not be (only once for me, but that is on a global scale), but how does my desire impact that, if it is a healthy desire kept in check by trust in God (IE not the desire that says “I will dig a hole outside the door to church and the first single woman who falls in, I will propose to her.”)?
Joe aka #1 fan
20 Jan 09 at 5:18 pm
PS. I <3 this blog, A++++++++ Fast Post!
Joe aka #1 fan
21 Jan 09 at 12:24 pm
Willard asked the reader to consider, do we even want a god to exist and what kind of god do we want to exist? Often times we can desire a god with certain characteristics and who acts a certain way. We then have a tendency to want to prove the correctness of that particular god, with the characteristics and actions that our desires have played a large role in dictating.
You bring up the point of thought and prayer. My example of drawing the line here is to consider your openness and ability to listen to God's answer to your heartfelt desires. Handing your desires over to God like people do at the airport screening stations and seeing if God gives them back to you is what prayer is all about. I think thats what it means to keep your “healthy desire in check by trust in God.” I do not think that it means trusting in God for all your desires. Maybe I should start a new post.
dhoff
21 Jan 09 at 12:43 pm
A++++++ fast comment.
dhoff
21 Jan 09 at 12:46 pm
PS. I <3 this blog, A++++++++ Fast Post!
Joe aka #1 fan
21 Jan 09 at 8:24 pm
Willard asked the reader to consider, do we even want a god to exist and what kind of god do we want to exist? Often times we can desire a god with certain characteristics and who acts a certain way. We then have a tendency to want to prove the correctness of that particular god, with the characteristics and actions that our desires have played a large role in dictating.
You bring up the point of thought and prayer. My example of drawing the line here is to consider your openness and ability to listen to God's answer to your heartfelt desires. Handing your desires over to God like people do at the airport screening stations and seeing if God gives them back to you is what prayer is all about. I think thats what it means to keep your “healthy desire in check by trust in God.” I do not think that it means trusting in God for all your desires. Maybe I should start a new post.
dhoff
21 Jan 09 at 8:43 pm
A++++++ fast comment.
dhoff
21 Jan 09 at 8:46 pm