Muddy Thinking

For a variety of reasons, I have taken the Myers-Briggs personality test several times during my life.  One of my undergraduate degrees was in Psychology, and we were first exposed to it then.  Later, in medical school, all of us in our class took it twice, once during the first year and then again in the third year.  This was a part of a psychological study of us, the medical students, to see if our personalities changed any over the course of our medical education.  Each time I was solidly an INTJ.

For those of you unfamiliar with the test, the Myers-Briggs measures four different personality qualities.  The first is an attitude preference, termed either extraversion (E) or introversion (I).  The second aspect is how one predominately perceives things, either by sensing (S)  or intuition (N).  The third area is how one tends to make decisons, either thinking (T) or feeling (F).  The final quality is a little more complicated, but basically has to do with whether one predominately uses their perceiving function or their decision-making function, either perceiving (P) or judging (J).  So this scheme makes for sixteen personality types, such as ESTP or INFJ and so on.  Since I am an INTJ, it means that I am introverted, intuitive, a thinker, and I predominately use my thinking function.  This is a very, very simplified explanation of the testing, but useful for the discussion that follows.

When I was confronted with my test scores, it would appear that on the thinking scale I am somewhat extreme.  If you looked at a scale with feeling on the left and thinking on the right, my personality is situated to the far right.  In fact, with regard to feeling and thinking, I have been told that I sit well to the right of Mr. Spock. Well, for someone who isn't supposed to have many feelings that hurt what few of them remain.  Anyway, it seems logical, to use a phrase from Mr. Spock, that if I am so oriented to thinking, my thinking ought to be highly developed.  But I am very guilty of muddy thinking from time to time, as I think most Christians can be. 

The Christian should have a different view of the world, and a different way of thinking about people, things, and events.  When we accept Christ into our lives, as we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and begin the lifelong process of sanctification, we should likewise begin the process of changed thinking.  Some of this requires a willful effort on our part.  Paul advises us in Romans 12:2, "And do not be comformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind..."  This can be harder than you can imagine for it requires that we should be "...bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ..." (II Cor 10:5).  That is quite a challenge, to control each and every thought.

There are two areas that come to mind when I think about falling short in this effort. The first has to do with our sufferings, and this was the motivation for writing my book, Surviving the Suffering.  As a physician dealing with suffering on a daily basis, I saw so many people worsen their sufferings by unclear thinking.  They would often misdiagnose the cause of their suffering and pursue the wrong treatments.  Their anguish was multiplied by adding complications to their problem, such as unnecessary shame or becomng angry with God.  It is my hope that the book will help people begin to think clearly about their sufferings in order to deal with them more effectively.

The second problem comes with the discouragement and despair that comes upon us from time to time.  I heard Allistair Begg remark that in all of those times he found himself in those situations, it was mostly because he had taken his eye off of God.  The more I reflected, the more I realized that was true in my own case.  Even when I was not truly suffering, but was feeling disappointed or discouraged, it was usually because of very muddy thinking, and not focusing on the things of God.  Getting our eyes back on God means turning to Him in prayer and His Word.  So many of the things we worry about are of not the slightest importance when placed in the perspective of eternity.  Although Christ spoke often of money in the New Testament, when He returns money will be one of the most useless things on earth.  Prestige and power will be meaningless as we kneel and bow before our Lord (Romans 14:11, Philippians 2:10).  Our health will cease to be a concern as we receive new bodies in Heaven. 

When we can clearly reason the way we should, we can see our trials exactly for what they are, whether it be to correct us, prune us, strengthen us, or glorify God.  And the trifles that fill our time and thoughts with worries and anxieties will be as dust blown away with a single breath when we join Christ in eternity.  It is trying to keep our eyes on God and the things of God, bringing those thoughts into captivity to the obedience of Christ, that causes the scales to fall from our eyes as they did with Paul (Acts9:18).  The clearer vision may not eliminate the problem completely, but will have you deal with it as God would have you do, rather than some misguided attempt of your own. 

Think about it.