Fixing your thoughts …

Every shot I took missed the intended target.

Recently I spent a week at a campsite in the middle of nowhere outside of San Diego. Because it’s the season for rattlesnakes to be slithering about, my friend loaned me his pistol for protection. It didn’t take long before I spotted a rattler, and my shots at it missed their mark. Fortunately for me, the snake just crawled away.

Having been ineffective with my marksmanship, I thought I should practice a little to become familiar with this pistol. With some targets perched for practice, I fired six rounds.

Every shot I took missed the intended target.

Had I entertained any sense of pride at that moment, it would have been “hurt.” I knew I used to be a very good shot with a gun (okay, that was years ago), but I certainly failed on that day!

But what else should have I expected?

My posture was terrible, shooting the gun single-handedly, giving little thought to my breathing, and just relying on a quick glance at the gun sights. With such disregard to my overall posture, I couldn’t effectively fix my sights so that I could hit the targets I was sloppily aiming at.

We’re often as sloppy with our thinking as I was with that terrible round of target practice. That’s why the Apostle Paul challenges us to fix our thinking …

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. 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. – Philippians 4:8

Just as I wasn’t taking my target practice seriously, we’re often as carefree with our thinking. The result will be all kinds of junk floating through our minds. And when we consider that our thoughts create our emotions, and our thoughts and emotions paired together create our behavior, it makes the direction (or lack of it) of our thoughts something to give real attention to.

Paul tells us to fix our thoughts, and what to fix them on: those things that are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely and admirable.

Is that what your thoughts are fixed on?

Evangelist Gordon Curley likes to compare the vulture and hummingbird. Both fly over the desert. All vultures see is rotting meat, because that is what they look for. They thrive on that diet. But hummingbirds ignore the smelly flesh of dead animals. Instead, they look for the colorful blossoms of desert plants. Both have fixed their minds on what they’re looking for.

What are your thoughts fixed on? What are you taking aim at with your thinking?

Scotty