Do you know how to stop thinking about that thing, whatever it is, that is making you crazy? You know, the one you can’t really do anything about even though you keep gnawing at it like a teething puppy on a chair leg? Like that unruly pup, you just can’t stop rubbing your sore thoughts over and over in hopes that you’ll have a breakthrough. The dog may be rubbing his way to a new tooth but you need something more. You want to fix that distressing situation and start feeling better. But continually pondering something you can’t control isn’t a good recipe for finding either a solution or relief. So, what can you do? One more thing about this before we go on. At least for me, the good things don’t seem to get stuck on endless rerun in my brain as often as the challenging or painful or scary things do. It doesn’t seem fair, but there it is. The very things I would prefer not to think about are throwing a party in my head, spilling stuff on the furniture, breaking delicate items, and in general, wreaking havoc while the good thoughts are napping. So, what are we to do with all this over-thinking, or as some call it, worrying?
Here’s the secret. If you want to stop a behavior, you need to replace it with something new and better. After all, you are not going to stop eating chocolate just for the heck of it and neither am I. I need something better to take its place. Not that there is anything better than chocolate, but you get my drift. We know this intuitively because when our children are little, we distract them from putting their fingers in the wall socket by holding a toy or something else enticing in front of them. I even do this with the dog. When Casey Lou won’t let go of her stuffed squirrel toy, I dangle the little toy lion with the fuzzy mane in front of her. Works every time. She’s a sucker for fuzzy.
This morning, while wrestling with some old, unproductive thoughts, a scripture came to mind. “Fix your eyes on Jesus.” Fix my eyes. Fix the way I see things. Fix the way I think. Look long and hard at God instead of my worries. Replace my anxious and frightened thoughts with thoughts of the One who authored my relationship with hope. Instead of getting stuck on what is painful, fix my eyes on the God who is present, has a purpose, participates in my everyday life, and provides for me. Replace the old, faulty thoughts with something better. The last part of that scripture describes Jesus as “the author and finisher of our faith,” the One who gives us hope and the One who completes it. This is truly something great to think about.
So, let the reruns begin because I’m changing my mind today! I’m fixing my eyes, or the eyes of my heart and mind, on the One who loves me and gives me eternal hope.