There are any number of Scriptures dealing with being careful what we allow in our minds whether television shows, movies, books we read, or other ways we ingest external influences. In my field of expertise, we refer to this as “garbage in, garbage out”. As a Christ follower, I am called to focus on “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise” (Philippians 4:8). What I allow in, does influence how I behave and treat others.
Recently I have been, as my Dad used to say, stewing about a situation. Someone sent me a rather disrespectful and quite frankly mean text making a number of demands. I knew how best to handle the text and took that action, but was left having “and then I told them” head conversations. You know the kind, where you think of all of the really beautiful and brilliant ways you could have achieved verbal revenge.
Then one morning, I had multiple messages of various forms all with variations on “taking captive every thought” from II Corinthians. It dawned on me that I was not focusing on what Philippians exhorted me to, AND I was not taking captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. I was, as Anne Lamott so eloquently put it, allowing someone and their meanness to live rent free in my head. All of these amazingly revengeful thoughts were not healthy for me. There was no way I would ever have just the right words with just the right music to change this person’s heart, to quell whatever causes them to behave in this manner – and it frankly wasn’t and isn’t my job to do so.
God’s on the job and all I have to do is make sure I’m not trying to do His job. I’ll admit that’s really hard for me because I really would have liked to had the last word in this situation rather than “leave them where Jesus flung them”. Sigh.
Just Sayin' 