"I just can't believe that I did that." "What in the world was I thinking?" "It just came over me --- I wasn't myself." How many times do you hear these excuses for actions that are inappropriate and seem out of character? I believe that the action is the last step, not the first. Let me give you a formula to experiment with and see if it is as helpful to you as it has been to me. "First the thought, then the mood, then the rationalized action." Let's unpack that a bit and see what I mean. First the thought comes in our mind and if we keep it long enough and endow it with validity, it drops down into our heart and creates a mood, then the mood rationalizes the action. For example, I read the other day in the paper where a mother under duress got this helpless feeling and she harbored it until it became a hopeless mood and then she rationalized an action of killing her two children and herself. Scripture talks of this in James when it talks of the progression from temptation to enticement to sin and death. Death was not the goal at the outset, but it was the logical end of the process.
How do we control this formula? We start by keeping that thought out of the heart. As long as we keep it in the mind it will be a fleeting thing. The old adage, "you can't keep the birds from flying overhead, but you can keep them from making a nest in your hair" gives us a picture of this concept. Jewish wisdom about the connection between thought and action is so clear on this point when you read the words, "guard the heart, for out of it come the issues of life" and "as a man thinks so is he." Therefore, our first responsibility is to dislodge the thought before it creates a mood and ultimately rationalizes an action. I'm not suggesting that we have the ability to clear our mind of a thought, because I don't believe we do. I think we can only clear our mind by adding something in its place. We re-program the mind by replacing the bad with the good. For example, the apostle Paul was conscious of this when he admonished the Philippians to "think about such things as truth, nobility, rightness, purity, loveliness, admirable, excellence, and praiseworthiness." He was designing a formula for thought control and appropriate behavior.
I am convinced that you can look at actions that surprised you and trace it back to the mood in which it was done. Mood is like a mindset that we create to facilitate action. The thought is buried into the soil but doesn't grow until the fertile mood is established. Have you lashed out at someone and then wondered why? Think back on the emotional and mental mood you were in. Have you made a decision that was atypical of your thought pattern? Recreate the mood environment and you will understand what came together to cause that decision. Every action is wrapped in a mood.
The rationalization of action is almost an unspoken process. The thought has come to life. The discipline of action starts in the mind. Psychologists tell us that to create a new habit or break an old habit takes 21 consecutive days. The key is the word consecutive. When a day is missed, the calendar goes back to day one. But it is worth the effort. Work with the formula and see what results. I would be interested in your thoughts on thinking.
