Just a Thought

Just a Thought…

by Grant Gaines

Did you know the youngest generation in America today is known as “Generation Y” or the “Millennial Generation”? This generation encompasses those who were born from the late 1970’s to the early 2000’s. Of the many unique traits that describe Generation Y, such as being tech-savvy, achievement-oriented, and attention-craving, none define this generation more than the “so what?” attitude.

The “so what?” attitude is the presumption that our thoughts and actions don’t have consequences. This attitude manifests itself in one of today’s most prevalent pop-culture phrases, “YOLO” or You Only Live Once.

The idea behind YOLO is that because you only live once, you need to maximize your own personal happiness 24/7, 365. Get drunk. Have premarital sex. Get a divorce. Cheat. Lie. Steal. “So what? There are no consequences.”

But the YOLO mindset isn’t only limited to this generation. In fact, YOLO finds its roots back in the days of the prophet Isaiah when the people would say, “Let us eat and drink…for tomorrow we die!” (Isaiah 22:13, NIV). Sounds an awful lot like YOLO, doesn’t it? And if you look around today, you’ll see this poisonous philosophy seeping into every unguarded home, school, workplace and mind.

Now, we could easily point out the faulty logic that our actions have no consequences because actions are tangible and quantifiable (measurable). We can see, feel, and touch our actions. But it is much harder to trace back to the root of a problem when the root is an intangible, unquantifiable (unmeasurable) thought that has been brewing for many days, months, or even years.

You see, we have the luxury of experiencing the outcomes of our actions immediately. When you touch a hot stove, your hand is instantly burned. This allows us to easily connect the dots between a consequence and its cause. However, the outcomes of our thoughts don’t often reveal themselves in nearly as short a timeframe which makes it difficult to see how our thoughts can positively or negatively affect our actions.

In the Bible, however, we do find a road map showing us the damage our thoughts produce when we allow a negative thought to gain a mind of its own.

We find this road map in James 1:15 (NIV) which says, “Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” Like a snowball effect our decisions have a strange way of piling upon each other, for better or for worse.

If we quickly kick the thought out, we avoid the negative snowball effect. But if we allow that thought to linger, we might as well sit back and watch the progression of our decisions mirror that of James 1:15. It may seem like just a thought, but soon our thoughts become our actions. And this is why it is so important to guard our thoughts, or as 2 Corinthians 10:5 (NIV) says, we must, “…take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

Beyond James 1:15, we see how even our lightest thoughts can have the heaviest of consequences all the time in the Bible. In Matthew 5:21-28 Jesus is rather frank about the truth that our thoughts are not without consequences. Namely, hating someone in your heart is murder and lusting for someone with your mind is the same as actually committing adultery.

In fact, Jesus was so concerned with us avoiding sin that He proclaimed in Matthew  5:29-30 (NLT), “So if your eye—even your good eye—causes you to lust, gouge it out and throw it away…And if your hand—even your stronger hand—causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.”

If you ask me, I would much rather follow the advice from 2 Corinthians 10:5 by being proactive and guarding my thoughts than having to take the drastic measures to overcome my sins such as the ones Jesus discussed in Matthew 5.

How serious are you about guarding your thoughts? Are you living with the “so what?”/YOLO mentality or are you following the advice given in Colossians 3:2 (NIV) by, “[Setting] your minds on things above, not on earthly things”?

Today when you’re faced with what looks like a small decision, take heed of this poem before you make your final conclusion, the thought may have a bigger impact than you could ever imagine.

“Watch your thoughts, for they become your words.
Watch your words, for they become your actions.
Watch your actions, for they become your habits.
Watch your habits, for they become your character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.” – Unknown

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©Grant Gaines 2013