THE OFT-ASKED QUESTION

these days is, “So what are you doing to keep yourself occupied while “Staying in Place?” during the COVID-19 pandemic. My answer is the answer no one has mentioned to me until now … thinking. I’ve been doing a lot of it lately.

 

SO I GOT TO THINKING—

about thinking. I began to wonder, is thinking overrated? Can too much thinking be injurious to one’s health? What do other people think about thinking? So I started checking it out. Here is some of what I found.

 

  1. “A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.” — William James (1842–1910), the first educator to offer a psychology course in the US

 

  1. “Clear thinking requires courage rather than intelligence.” — Thomas Szasz (1920-2012). Hungarian-American academic, psychiatrist

 

  1. “Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?” — Winnie the Pooh. In 1914 a Canadian veterinarian-soldier adopted a black bear cub and named it after his adopted hometown of Winnipeg, thus launching the saga of Winnie the Pooh, a loyal fictional friend to his neighbors in the Hundred Acre Wood. This makes Winnie 106 years old this year.

 

  1. “Few minds wear out; more rust out.” — Christian N. Bovee (1820-1904), an American author

 

  1. “It is well for people who think, to change their minds occasionally in order to keep them clean.” — Luther Burbank (1849-1926), an American botanist

 

  1. “Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind it.” —  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), American lecturer philosopher and poet

 

  1. “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.” — Rick Warren (1954-present), American evangelical Christian pastor and author.

 

  1. “I am neither bitter nor cynical but I do wish there was less immaturity in political thinking.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945), America’s 32nd President

 

  1. “I like thinking big. If you’re going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big.” — Donald Trump (1946-present), America’s 45th President

 

  • “I must write it all out, at any cost. Writing is thinking. It is more than living, for it is being conscious of living.” — Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906-2001), an American author and aviator

 

  • “I was thinking that we all learn by experience, but some of us have to go to summer school.” — Peter De Vries (1910-1993), an American editor and novelist

 

  • “If you keep thinking about what you want to do or what you hope will happen, you don’t do it, and it won’t happen.” — Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536), a Dutch philosopher and Christian scholar

 

  • “Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed.” — Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), a French mathematician, physicist, religious philosopher

 

  • “Men can live without air a few minutes, without water for about two weeks, without food for about two months – and without a new thought for years on end.” — Kent Ruth (1916-1991), an Oklahoma historian

 

  • “My definition of an intellectual is someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture without thinking of the Lone Ranger.” — Billy Connolly (1942-present), a retired Scottish comedian, musician, actor and artist.

 

  • “People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.” — Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), a Danish philosopher, theologian, cultural critic

 

  • “The best thinking has been done in solitude. The worst has been done in turmoil.” — Thomas A. Edison (1847-1931), an American inventor

 

  • “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” — Alice Walker (1944-present), a novelist, social activist, wrote Pulitzer Prize novel, The Color Purple

 

  • “The secret of living a life of excellence is merely a matter of thinking thoughts of excellence. Really, it’s a matter of programming our minds with the kind of information that will set us free.” — Charles R. Swindoll (1934-present), an evangelical Christian pastor, author, educator, and radio preacher.

 

  • “The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking.” — A. Milne (1882-1956), an English humorist, the originator of the immensely popular stories of Christopher Robin and his toy bear, Winnie-the-Pooh

 

  • “The thoughts that come often unsought, and, as it were, drop into the mind, are commonly the most valuable of any we have.” (1632-1704) — John Locke. He expressed his view that government is obligated to serve the people, by protecting life, liberty, and property. He went about limiting power of the government.

 

  • “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” — W. Tozer (1897-1963), an American pastor, author, magazine editor and spiritual mentor

 

And finally from one of the earliest Christian church missionaries:

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 2:5 KJV, —The Apostle Paul (5-64 or 67),

 

My friend, may your thoughts be renewed with hope, energy and love. Perhaps if you find yourself with time on your hands during this COVID-19 season, this gives you something fresh to think about.

 

Blessings.