“Be careful what you think, because your thoughts run your life. Don’t use your mouth to tell lies; don’t ever say things that are not true.”
Proverbs 4:23-24 NCV
This Lenten season has given me the opportunity to be reflective of how we have been challenged to discern facts from lies. No better place to take up this challenge than on our campus which is a place of intellectual thought, the marketplace of ideas, a place of discovery and rediscovery. Knowledge and facts are developed on our campus through research, the advancement of technology and new methodologies. However, with information coming from so many sources, we often become unconscious consumers of information without developing a critical filter to discern the truth.
Growing up in Children’s Church, I remember the song, “O Be Careful Little Eyes” in which the lyrics remind us to be careful what we see, what we hear, what we do, where we go, and what we say. I’d like to add another stanza that would be “to be careful little mind what you think” because how we think impacts how we process what we hear, decide where we go, what we do and say – to speak lies or the truth. We must be careful with how we think because indeed “our thoughts run our life”
I write this devotional from Jackson, Mississippi while on the TCU Justice Journey during our spring break and on the wall at the Smith Robertson Museum and Cultural Center where I sit is a quote from Ida B. Wells-Barnett, “The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.” There is only one light of truth, God’s truth, God’s light and only God’s light of truth can set us free. As we think about what is true, know that truth and redemption is found in God’s love for us.
Many of us are still allowing our minds to listen to lies and think in old ways, but this only holds us back from living in God’s truth. As we aim for and seek God’s truth, we must take responsibility of our thinking by making our critical filter God’s love and grace, allow God to influence our thoughts, so that God will “run our life”.
Gracious and loving God, open our minds to your truth this day and every day to come. May your love and grace be the filter through which we see, understand, and engage all things. Amen.
-Dr. Mark Kamimura-Jimenez, Assistant Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs
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