I Think, You Think, We all Think

Hundreds of years ago, a French philosopher named Rene Descartes shut himself up in a room to do some thinking. He did a lot of thinking, too. In fact, good old Rene did so much thinking that even today people are still thinking about one of the things he thought. Rene’s the fellow who said: “I think, therefore I am.”

I don’t know how Rene got his most important thought to go viral as this was centuries before Al Gore pretended to invent the Internet but word got around and Rene’s big thought has been cussed and discussed ever since. From what I understand, Rene was saying that the very ability to think proves that the one thinking exists.

Can I be honest? I could think about that all day long and I still wouldn’t see why it’s such a big revelation, but then I’m no philosopher. I’m simply a Jesus loving, story stacking country girl who is about to say something that will sound unbelievably audacious to the intellectuals among us. Bear with me, brilliant people, but I would like to suggest that Rene’s sentence stops a mite short.

How about “I think, therefore I am angry” or “I think, therefore I am sad, or worried, or– you fill in the blank”. All I’m saying is that our thoughts may prove our existence, but they also dictate our experience.

And that’s why you’ll find telling the Lord these days that I simply can’t be trusted to be alone with my thoughts. I’ve come to understand that I need Him in all of them and I want Him in all of them because apart from Him, my thoughts deteriorate quickly. This after so many early years in the faith when my attitude was that if I had given God a dutiful block of my attention, the rest of the day and all of my thinking was mine.

I sense God’s pleasure that I finally understand how needy I am.

All I’m saying is that I think, therefore I need God in all of my thoughts. So do you. Think about it.

Hugs, Shellie