Bjcorbin's Blog

The book of Proverbs says that the way a man chooses to think will ultimately define who he is; and while many people in our society like to consider themselves a victim of circumstance, the aforementioned concept really puts the onus of responsibility squarely on the individual.  Undoubtedly, many have suffered through difficult situations; but even so, we all still have the choice as to how we view our circumstances, ourselves, other people, the past, the present, the future…  Ultimately, how we think will drive how we feel and in western culture, how we feel will likely shape our conception of reality.  If light of this, taking a hard look at our thought patterns ought to give us a clearer picture of who we’ve actually become; and any efforts toward personal growth would seem to be rooted in a change to our thought process.  Though there are some who might claim that we have no control over the thoughts that “pop into our head”, I believe that we are far more in control of that than we’d like to admit.  In a sense our minds are a lot like our personal computers and as such, I offer the following:

Filters/Anti-Virus Programs:  In our culture the idea of being “open minded” has become the only politically acceptable option; as if completely open or completely closed were the only viable choices.  While I’m certainly not an advocate of a closed mind, prudence dictates that not just any thought should be entertained.  Just as with our computers, there are some things that have the potential to come in and bog down our system operation or to completely disrupt its function.  Just like a computer virus, there are some patterns of thought that threaten to infect other parts of our mind and ultimately the whole of our being.  As such, we need to recognize that some things ought to be off limits and to protect our systems from those things.  While most people wouldn’t dream of trying to operate their computer systems without some form of network protection, I would submit that many operate with no such constraints on their thoughts.

Pop-Ups/SPAM:  Even when we do protect our systems, there are things that find their way onto our screens and when that happens, it often requires immediate attention.  Unsolicited messages, from unknown sources, need to be evaluated before opening; infected messages must be quarantined and safely eliminated; and pop-ups generally just need to be deleted without regard.  Clicking on some sites (even just once) can open up a world that can be hard to escape.  As with our computers, the longer it takes for us to recognize the detrimental element of these things, the greater the damage done.  While we may not always be able to control who shows up at our door, we can control who we let in.

Wallpaper:  One of the great features of today’s computer and/or cell-phone screens is the ability to customize the background (i.e. “wallpaper”).  On my cell-phone screen you’ll undoubtedly find pictures of my kids underneath the bright digits of the current time and the functional icons that default there.  And while most of us will generally pick some cheerful image for our computer screens, the background of our mind often isn’t so festive.  When we choose to hold on to the hurts/fears/disappointments/betrayals… of the past, we in a sense make this the “wallpaper” of our minds.  In that case, everything that comes onto our screens is viewed against the backdrop of those painful experiences, thus tempering any joy and/or potential healing that might come our way.  Just as with our computers, I believe that we ultimately control what image populates our default screen.

Screen Saver:  Even if we’ve pretty much overcome the troubles of our past, most of us have issues going on presently which seem to want to dominate our thoughts.  When we become overly focused on those issues, their proportions can easily become distorted.  Suicide victims often have many positive aspects to their lives, but their focus on one particular situation or aspect generally causes them to completely lose sight of those things.  When we dwell on one specific issue to excess, we in affect make it the “screen saver” for our mind.  It becomes the place that our thoughts naturally gravitate back to when our mind is not actively engaged in something else.  When we allow ourselves to obsessively worry about such issues, it can become like setting your screen saver to come on at every 15 second pause.  You wind up having to constantly push that image from the screen in order to get anything else done.  In such a case, we need to recognize that we’ve lost our perspective and that it will take action on our part to change our system settings.

Just as few people would leave their personal computer system completely unprotected, it seems doubtful that many would use images of their most traumatic, painful or humiliating moments as their “wallpaper” or “screen saver”.  Yet I would submit that many of us are handling our thought life in this way.  If that is the case, maybe it’s time to change those settings to something more uplifting and hopeful.  Though this change may require more than just the punch of a button, the decision to press that button is a beginning in and of itself.