Do you Labour under a False Projection of God

Never good enough, always feeling guilty, labouring without end. Does this describe your relationship with God?

Photo Credit: Half Chinese via Compfight cc

Dwight Edwards relates the perceptions about God of such a person.

God’s demands of me were so high and His opinion of me was so low, there was no way for me to live except under His frown … All day long He nagged me: “Why don’t you pray more? Why don’t you witness more? When will you ever learn self-discipline? How can you allow yourself to indulge in such wicked thoughts? Do this. Don’t do that. Yield, confess, work harder.” God was always using His love against me. He’d show His nail-pierced hands, and then he would look glaringly and say “Well, why aren't you a better Christian? Get busy and live the way you ought to.”

Most of all, I had a God who down underneath considered me to be less than dirt. Oh, He made a great ado about loving me, but I believed that the day-to-day love and acceptance I longed for could only be mine if I let Him crush everything that was really me. When I came down to it, there was scarcely a word or a feeling or a thought or a decision of mine that God really liked. 

Dwight Edwards - Revolution Within

For some God is like a terrible task master, always demanding more. 

Do you labour under this projected perception of God? 

I enjoy going to the movies. I sit for a couple of hours and look at a huge screen and a story unfolds it self to me. Up behind me is a projection box and light beams out from it casting the story onto the white screen.

Whatever is projected, I take into myself and becomes my reality for a short period of time. Whether I am being transported around the universe on Starship Enterprise, or walking fields with Hobbit's, I am totally absorbed in a projected view. 

Escapism from reality is ok, for a while, but eventually the movie comes to an end and I shuffle out of the theatre and back to living with bills to pay and dirty dishes to wash. 

What projected view of God do you languish, labour, or love under? 

It is vitally important to your Spiritual Formation to have a wide and holistic view of what God is really like and being open to change. 

For some the movie of God is black and white, harsh and hard. There is little colour and life that would be considered attractive. 

Perhaps a visit to a different movie might help?

People gathered around Jesus and he talked to them.

“Are you tired?
Worn out?
Burned out on religion?
Come to me.
Get away with me and you’ll recover your life.
I’ll show you how to take a real rest.
Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it.
Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.
I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.
Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
Matthew 11:28-30

Some quotes to consider

• Moralism and its stepchild, legalism, reduce the love story of God for his people to the observance of burdensome duties and oppressive laws. Brennan Manning A Glimpse of Jesus
• The Christian world, which incessantly projects its own god fashioned after its own image, pays a heavy price in anxiety, a scrupulosity that sees sin where there is no sin, and a vague sense of existential guilt. A Glimpse of Jesus
• I hope it is clear that feelings of guilt, accompanied by anxiety, fear and restlessness, arise from deep within ourselves and are not an accurate gauge of the state of our souls before God. We cannot assume that he feels about us the way we feel about ourselves, unless we love ourselves intensely and freely. Bernard Bush 

Questions to consider and leave a comment.

• What projections of God have you laboured under?
• What picture of God does Jesus reveal in Matthew 11:28-30
• How does someone change the projected view of God that they have adopted as reality?

Barry Pearman

Listening for the Whisper Amidst the Noise

It is a noisy world.

Photo Credit: michale via Compfight cc 

So many sensory inputs.  

Text messages to read, social networks to follow, email, radio, T.V., movies, blogs, podcasts, books, eBooks, audio books. 

The list can go on and on.

So much noise!

Does all this noise add to your life or could it be a distraction from life? 

Is it just a glutinous consumption of more information? 

The writer of Proverbs says this

A leech has twin daughters named “Gimme” and “Gimme more.” Proverbs 30:15 (The Message)

I read this the other day on my twitter feed.

@kimgarst: Face your problems...DO NOT Facebook your problems ｡◕‿◕｡ #youcandosocial

Do we face our problems, or Facebook them? 

Do we tweet out our misery into the land of noise hoping for some sympathy or a magic information wand to suddenly appear.

I think of the Bible character Elisha. Here was a guy burnt out, exhausted, depressed, and suicidal. He runs in panic to the desert, finds a cave to hide, seeks God, and experiences noise.

A hurricane wind ripped through the mountains and shattered the rocks before God, but God wasn’t to be found in the wind; after the wind an earthquake, but God wasn’t in the earthquake; and after the earthquake fire, but God wasn’t in the fire; and after the fire a gentle and quiet whisper.

When Elijah heard the quiet voice, he muffled his face with his great cloak, went to the mouth of the cave, and stood there. A quiet voice asked, “So Elijah, now tell me, what are you doing here?” 1 Kings 19:12, 13

Elisha's story is not unlike many of ours.

Elisha is being pounded by noise. 

The internal noise between the ears. 

His fears, anxieties, the thoughts of people wanting to kill him. So he runs to try and escape. 

A desert and a cave. 
             A storm, and a fire and then 
                                                                                a whisper. 

From chaotic 'out of control' panic to a 'gentle and quiet whisper'.

It takes effort to listen for the whisper.

A focus and a stilling of the self.

Opening the self to God in its totality involves meeting God in mind and heart, the senses and imagination, stillness and action, meditation and contemplation. David G. Benner.

Perhaps a method of hearing the whisper's is Lectio Divina.

David Benner in Opening to God: Lectio Divina and Life as Prayer describes a six part process to listening.

1. Place. Pick a place that you will use for regular times of lectio divina. Make this somewhere quiet that will support attentive openness to God.

2. Time. Be realistic as you think about when and for how long you will try to practice this prayer, but also plan on being regular. 

3. A short reading. Take a small morsel of Scripture and expect God to give you a word or phrase from it that will nourish your soul and meet your present spiritual needs.

4. Listen for a word from God. In this context, a "word" does not necessarily mean a single word; it could be a phrase or even a short sentence. It means a meaningful message summed up in a few words. Notice the gentle touch that draws your attention, makes you stop and think, or stimulates a memory or a body sensation. Trust that this is God's word for you.

5. Respond. Thank God for the gift you have been given and for God's personal word to you. And then allow your heart and head to lead you in a response.

6. Be with God in stillness. Finally, as your worded prayer comes to an end, simply be with God in stillness. Sit in silence in God's presence. Soak in the goodness of God's grace.

We have so much noise in our lives. 

Is it too much?

Spend some time today in quiet, just listening to the whispers of God. 

Questions to consider and leave a comment

• What sources of 'Noise' dominate your world?
• Follow David Benner's 6 steps and leave a comment about what whisper you heard.

Barry Pearman

To the Power of Being Known

Have you ever been

found,
     found out, 
        or found wanting?

Artist: David Hayward

This picture comes from the story of the Men caught in Hypocrisy.

Jesus went across to Mount Olives, but he was soon back in the Temple again. Swarms of people came to him. He sat down and taught them.

The religion scholars and Pharisees led in a woman who had been caught in an act of adultery. They stood her in plain sight of everyone and said, “Teacher, this woman was caught red-handed in the act of adultery. Moses, in the Law, gives orders to stone such persons. What do you say?” They were trying to trap him into saying something incriminating so they could bring charges against him.

Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger in the dirt. They kept at him, badgering him. He straightened up and said, “The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone.” Bending down again, he wrote some more in the dirt.

Hearing that, they walked away, one after another, beginning with the oldest. The woman was left alone. Jesus stood up and spoke to her. “Woman, where are they? Does no one condemn you?”

“No one, Master.”

“Neither do I,” said Jesus. “Go on your way. From now on, don’t sin.” John 8:1-11 (The Message)

Being found out exposes us to the judgment and potential condemnation of others.

Being found wanting brings us to a point of need, a cry for mercy, a hunger for grace. 
Being found and known is what we all need. 

Jesus knew her. 

He knew the reasons why she did what she did, he knew her background, he knew the pain that coursed its way through her life, and he found her. 

If he can find her, he can find you, and its ok.

Jesus in finding this unnamed woman gave her the gift of being known. He knew her deepest core need of being considered as worthy of love. Under all the pain and stain of life, here was one that was made in the image of God. 

Here was beauty waiting to fully released. 

I have recently been reading Anatomy of the Soul by Curt Thompson. 

He writes this. 

It is only when we are known that we are positioned to become conduits of love. And it is love that transforms our minds, makes forgiveness possible, and weaves a community of disparate people into the tapestry of God’s family. 

To be known is to be pursued, examined, and shaken.

To be known is to be loved and to have hopes and even demands placed on you.

It is to risk, not only the furniture in your home being rearranged, but your floor plans being rewritten, your walls being demolished and reconstructed.

To be known means that you allow your shame and guilt to be exposed—in order for them to be healed. Curt Thompson M.D

Jesus sided with the sinner. 

Question to Consider and leave a comment.

• What makes a person safe for you to allow them to know you? 
• What fears surface at the thought of being fully known?

Barry Pearman

Slaying the Fear Giant

As a kid I imagined he was as tall as a skyscraper, now I realise that he was only 3 ft 9' taller than I am. 

Photo Credit: JLM Photography. via Compfight cc 

Have you ever returned to some place that you knew really well as a child and discovered that it isn't that big as you had remembered. 

It might be your old bedroom, a playing field, a school yard. 

You thought they were so big yet now with adult eyes you see them as no bigger than anything else. 

There is a story in the Bible about a child killing a tall man. Goliath was 9ft 9" high, but the way it was portrayed to me, as a child, he was a GIANT. 

David and the Goliath was read alongside Jack and the Beanstalk where the hero was up against super tall mountainous men and women. Now that grabs a child's attention as they place themselves in the same situation. 

The problem with these stories is that huge cloud hugging giants don't exist. 

It's true I tell, they don't exist!

When read in a story with creative emotional embellishment the child believes them totally. Well in my mind I did. 

Carry this subtle thinking pathway over into adulthood and those fear giants can still exist big and ugly as ever. 

How do you cut them down? 
        How do you slay those fears? 

We need to reprogram the subconscious through cognitive reassessments. 

David's giant was actually only 3ft taller than I am. David was ten years old so perhaps his Giant was only double his size and not the 'hugging treetops' kind. 

In reality David's giant was actually quite manageable, with God's help. 

When I get hard nosed facts, when I break my fears down into doable portions it gives my brain more information to process, reassess, and retrain the childlike brain's first response. 

My feelings are not a reliable guide to my future and feeling it doesn't make it so. 

It's time to reassess the assessments, but this time as an adult. 

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 1 Corinthians 13: 11

Questions to consider and leave a comment.

• What fears do you have that needed reassessing?
• How much do you rely on feelings to guide you?

Barry Pearman

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Does the Resurrection Rattle your World?

It was only a moderate 3.9 magnitude earthquake that struck Auckland on Sunday March 17th. We don't get many noticeable earthquakes in Auckland, but this one rattled our house.

Photo Credit: Takadanobaba Kurazawa via Compfight cc 

Earthquakes have a very unsettling effect on a person's psyche. We like to have a sense of security and sameness, with nothing unpredictable. Nothing out of our comfort zone, nothing we can't control. 

As we go through life we develop ways of looking at the world around us, what is logical and predictable. Knowing that a traffic light showing a Red colour means 'STOP' and Green means 'GO' keeps us safe as we travel. 

But what happens when an earthquake of complete difference rattles our logical way of looking at things? 

We have to reassess our thinking don't we.

Physical Earthquakes were a feature of both the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. A greater earthquake though hit the thinking of those people gathered in Jerusalem at the time.

The Resurrection earthquake caused people to respond in many different ways.

• Religious refusal to believe in the Resurrection - Matt. 28:11-15 
• Concoction of a false story - Matt. 28:11-15 
• Discounting the Resurrection - an 'idle tale' - Luke 24:11 
• Doubt & scepticism that it could happen - Mark 16:12; Luke 24:36-43 
• Hesitancy - John 20:5 
• Weeping - Mark 16:10 
• Fear and terror - Matt. 28:8; Mark 16:8; Luke 24:5
• Questions and puzzlement - Luke 24:4, 14
• Urgent desire - Luke 24:12 
• Hearts burning - Luke 24:32
• Amazement and Joy - Matt. 28:8; Mark 16:8; Luke 24:12
• Announcing the news - Mark 16:10 
• Worship - Matthew 28:9

Here were a group of people trying to integrate all they had experienced. Trying to make sense of a world that been turned completely upside down and shaken to its core. 

Jesus, brutally murdered in the most torturous method of execution known to man, was now alive, talking, and eating. 

I wonder about what sort of mental turmoil must have been happening in this community. 

When we say we want to know God, are we prepared for our world to be shaken? Our construct of how we view life being de-constructed. 

[The Resurrection] was an event of faith, of a changed consciousness, of new hope that empowers a new charity. But it was also an event of changed atoms and of a changed dead body. Ron Rolheiser

In one of the post resurrection encounters, Jesus was having a meal with his followers and he scolds them for their lack of faith and stubbornness about not believing.

Later he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were sitting at the table; and he upbraided them for their lack of faith and stubbornness, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. Mark 16:14

Upbraid - rebuke, reproach, reprove, chide, reprehend, scold, take them to task most severely.

We see the face of Jesus angry at his followers for still not getting it. Miracle after miracle, walking on water, raising the dead, water into wine, and now even his own resurrection and still his followers minds were tied to an earthly logic than to the heavenly reality. 

One of the features of Mental Health recovery is to try and make the environment as predictable as possible. If I know what is going to happen with reasonable predictability then I don't need to feel so anxious, I have some control. 

I wonder if the Resurrection turns this on its head and challenges us to believe more in the unchanging and unfailing nature of God than in any human constructs we create. 

God who says 'I am with you' is infinitely better than any self-reliant personal construct of 'I am with me'.  

Question to consider and share a comment.

• How do you think you would react to a Resurrection earthquake?

Barry Pearman

p.s. if you would like to listen to my Resurrection Sunday sermon then download it here.

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Who do you Want on your Mental Health Recovery Team?

There is no ideal community. Community is made up of people with all their richness, but also with their weakness and poverty, of people who accept and forgive each other, who are vulnerable with each other. Humility and trust are more at the foundation of community than perfection. Jean Vanier

Lars and the Real Girl

It was one of those movies that you wonder if you should really watch, but then your so glad you did.

A guy buys an anatomically correct blow up doll on the Internet. 

There is a very good reason for Lars to do this, he has a Delusional Disorder and sees 'Bianca' as being real, totally and utterly real. I have know people with various types of Delusional Disorders and they are so fixed about their beliefs its heart breaking.

Lars and the Real Girl is humorous, but it has a very serious side to it. 

It challenges the viewer as to how they treat others who are different to themselves.

This was the challenge for Lar's community.

How do we help Lars.

They embrace him, and Bianca, and over time with therapy and support Lars changes. 

It's pretty idealistic, but it has to be one of the best portrayals of what recovery from a Major Mental illness requires.

A community of people all supporting the individual in their journey. 

Who is on your team? 

         Whose team are you on?

The better the people on your recovery team, the better the outcome. 

I have seen this time and time again. 

The team hopefully will involve specialists such as Doctors, Nurses, Social Workers, Counsellors, Support Workers, Pastors, Chaplains etc. All generally paid to perform a vital function with the skills and knowledge they have. 

Then there are the other team members. Those that unpaid, have no formal qualifications, and are just there because they are. Family, friends, workmates, neighbours, etc. 

These are the ones that are going to be there generally in the long term. Relationships here are probably more crucial to long term recovery than those with the professionals. 

What do safe relationships look like? 

Safe relationships are where Grace overwhelms Judgementalism, Wisdom replaces Technique, Hope eliminates Pressure, and the listener resists the urge to merely empathize, give quick advice and provide a "religious" fix. Larry Crabb

As I said, 'Lars and the Real Girl' is idealistic, but not unrealistic. 

The first step in forming safe relational communities is to be a safe relating person yourself. 

Questions to consider and share a comment?

1. Larry Crabb lists 6 requirements of a safe relationship. Which holds the most difficulty for you and why? 
2. How have you felt when you have been judged, processed through a technique, pressured, listened with 'Oh you poor thing' empathy, given quick advice and or a religious fix? How could they have done better?  

Barry Pearman 

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What Swiss Cheese has taught me about Forgiving Myself and Others

We all make mistakes, we all stuff up. The feelings of regret, shame, maybe even guilt can plague and loom over us like a dark cloud.
How do we learn to come out from that cloud?
We need to eat more Swiss cheese!

Ok, now I don’t want you to go off and gorge yourself on Swiss Cheese thinking it will magically remove all the woes and cares you have. It might actually add a few more pounds of them!

I want you to ponder on Swiss Cheese. The one, just like us, with all the holes in it.

What I am talking about is the Swiss Cheese Model of Human Error. This is a model that is used to understand how the weaknesses in our layers of protection can lead to some serious mistakes happening.

Just imagine you have a block of Swiss Cheese.

You slice it into thin layers. Now if you wanted to, you could line up the layers of cheese so that you could pass a pencil through the holes. You just have to have the slices lined up in the right way.

The Swiss Cheese Model was developed by James Reason (what a great name) to describe how you create many different layers to stop serious errors occurring. Each layer or slice of cheese has a hole in it, a weakness. No system of prevention is perfect. 

So you create other layers of defence to stop errors occurring, but all the layers have potential weaknesses and holes. When all the holes line up then an error will occur.

How does this help with forgiveness?

Well, take a serious look over a mistake you have made, maybe get a friend to help you with this who can be objective about it all.

Take a look at all the things that led up to the mistake happening.

Often it will be a combination of holes aligning to let that error through. Some of the holes may not have been anything to do with you. It may have been the responsibility of someone else. All that you can be responsible for is what you did, your layer.

Ok, here is an example.

A road worker dies when a car hits him on the side of the road. You were the one driving the car. This memory haunts you day and night.

An investigation is done of the accident. The investigation looks at all the factors of the crash. They go through every layer of protection that was there to protect this man from being hit.

They discover that all the signs were not put out warning you of road works being ahead. They discover that the road was wet and it was dark making it difficult for you to see. They discover that your brakes were slightly faulty and that the mechanic who just checked them over wasn’t qualified to do so. They discover that your car hit a nail just as you came around the bend towards the road works. The list goes on and on of discovering layers of protection that had holes in them, but when they all lined up then catastrophe was inevitable.

Who or what was to blame for his death. It was a combination of faults.

After the investigation is complete there are new rules made about signage for road works, mechanic training, etc.

How does this help with self forgiveness?

I think its vitally important to analyse out those big mistakes you may have made. Look for all the layers that could have prevented it from happening.

We can't go back and change things, we can only go forward with new learning's.

Experience is not the best teacher;evaluated experience is the best teacher.
John Maxwell

Forgive yourself for your part in the error. Forgive others for their part in the error. Allow God to reveal to you that no human system is perfect. Be forgiving.

Learn to let it go.
How does understanding that there are multiple reasons for mistakes, help you?
Is it easier to ‘let it go’ when you don’t have to carry as much of a load? Why?

Share your thoughts by leaving a comment.

Barry Pearman

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The Sacredness of Hope

Hope by Martin Gommel

Oft hope is born when all is forlorn. J.R.R. Tolkien The Return of the King

Dark was the night

It chased so hard

 

Wild storms thrashed

Upon my soul

 

Questions raged

Answers unfound

 

Prayers formed

and argued aloud

 

Christ stands

Tears flow down

 

A break of light

A glow in the sky

 

I kneel

He steels

My heart once more

 

Cold winds that blew once

Now at my back

I reach out with hope

 

A Love

A life

A Saviour to be known

There is a sacredness to hope.

Something quite intangible happens at the darkest turning points of our lives. We find a friend who invites us to trust in him, that he knows the way, and that he has walked this walk and can help us too.

Jesus, right from birth, knew that his end would be in agonising pain. The physical pain of tortured death and the relational pain of abandonment.

The writer of the book of Hebrews tells us this

For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2

Jesus had a hope of sitting as one who had overcome. He endured everything that was thrown at him because he knew there was something worth far more than the present pain.

Hope is the alluring song of the future, and faith is dancing me towards it.

Some quotes to consider

Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.
Anonymous

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. Martin Luther King Jr.

Hope is the feeling that the feeling you have isn't permanent. Jean Kerr

Believe that there's light at the end of the tunnel. Believe that you might be that light for someone else. Kobi Yamada

Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: You don't give up. Anne Lamott

How does hope play a part in your everyday life?

Barry Pearman

Image by Martin Gommel Creative Commons Flickr

Lassoing those Varmint Thoughts

I have been thinking, you have too. 

Tony ropping by By M Glasgow

We all have thoughts that rumble on through the grey matter. Some good and helpful, some not so good, and actually unhelpful.

Around and around the thought blender they go.

I know for me, some of my thoughts have a particular theme.
If I could box them and categorise them I would have multiple files of thoughts.

Fear thoughts, love thoughts, hope thoughts, despair thoughts, depression thoughts, anger thoughts, revenge thoughts, joy thoughts, worship thoughts. The filing cabinet of thoughts has many files.

Some of these thoughts can be powerfully dominant.

It is like they take over our lives, trying to dominate everything we do. They capture us and make us slaves to their existence.

If you want to see how they do this then check out this very cool video.

What do we do though when we have thoughts that we don’t like?

We have to take control of them. We have to actually get quite determined in our attitude towards them.

The Apostle Paul writes this.

Indeed, we live as human beings, but we do not wage war according to human standards; for the weapons of our warfare are not merely human, but they have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5

The language he uses is one of a battle going on. Power words such as weapons, warfare, power, destroy, strongholds, obstacles, captives are used.

Other translations put verse 5 in this way.

bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ AKJV
We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ NLT
taking every thought captive in order to obey the Messiah. ISV
and we carry off every thought as if into slavery--into subjection to Christ Weymouth New Testament

fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. The Message

If we dig just a little deeper into the original Greek language and look at the word used for ‘to take captive’ it is aichmalótizó meaning to take captive, subdue, ensnare. The root word, aichmalotos, means to lead captive as a prisoner of war and comes from aichme (a spear or sword).

Paul is saying that you are to take your thoughts captive at the point of a spear or sword.

What pictures form in your mind as you read this.

I have this picture of a thought floating through my brain and then I lasso the sucker (like something out of a Road Runner/ Wile  E. Coyote cartoon) and nail it down.

‘Your not getting away, I’ve got you now, you varmint thought’

Ok, some have called me a little weird at times but it is a picture that tells me that I am in control of my thoughts and not the other way round. I want to be able to grab that thought, especially the negative ones, and capture, subdue and ensnare it.

How do I do this?

With a thought journal, I prayerfully write my thoughts down.
Some people collect teaspoons, I collect quotes. I hoard the wise thoughts of others such as this one from Dawson Trotman.

Thoughts disentangle themselves when they pass through your fingertips

I have found this to be so true. When I pick up a pen or pencil and write down my thoughts into a journal they seem to just become more solid, real, and accessible to scrutiny.

They have been captured.

What thoughts do you need to take captive. Grab your lasso and nail the suckers!

Barry Pearman
Image by By M Glasgow Creative Commons Flickr
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Rewriting the Script–How to Change your Brain

O is for Occipital Lobe by illuminaut

I had heard the same thing over and over and over again from this person. Self doubts, questioning, cynicism, fears all mashed together to be an ugly serving for the day.
They had learnt the script over the whole of their lives. Repeated it, rehearsed it, played it out on so many stages that they no longer needed to look at the original script notes. They were the play. It had become them. People knew them as the person who played the part of the play, rather than the actor themselves. They had lost all connection with who they had originally been. The actor and the person they were playing were now one.
We all have a script that we follow. Influences, good and bad, have come across our lives that have shaped and moulded how we live, and how we respond to life. We have ways of thinking, looking at things.
In Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy, David Burns outlines 10 common mistakes in thinking, which he calls cognitive distortions.

1. All-or-Nothing Thinking -You see things as black or white, never grey, e.g. if your performance falls short of perfect, you see yourself as a total failure.
2. Overgeneralisation - You see a single negative event as a never-ending pattern, e.g. “I messed up”, “I never get anything right”.
3. Mental Filter - You pick out a single negative detail and dwell on it exclusively so that your view of reality becomes darkened, like a drop of ink that discolours an entire glass of water.
4. Disqualifying the Positive - You reject positive experiences by insisting they “don’t count” for some reason or other. In this way you continue to see everything as negative even when your
   everyday experiences contradict this.
5. Jumping to Conclusions - You make a negative interpretation even though there are no definite facts that convincingly support your interpretation.
   a. Mind Reading: You think that someone is reacting negatively to you and you don’t try to check this out with them.
   b. The Fortune-Teller Error: You anticipate that things will turn out badly and you feel convinced that your prediction is an already established fact.
6. Magnification (Catastrophising) or Minimisation - You exaggerate the importance of things (such as your error or someone else’s
   success), or you incorrectly shrink things until they appear tiny (your own desirable qualities or the other person’s imperfections).
7. Emotional Reasoning - You believe that your negative emotions reflect the way that things really are: “I feel it, therefore it must be true”.
8. “Should” (Must, Ought To) Statements - You try to motivate yourself with “shoulds” and “shouldn’ts” as if you had to be whipped and punished before you could be expected to do anything. The emotional consequence are feelings of guilt, or being inadequate or wrong. When you tell others they “should” do something, you feel anger, frustration and resentment.
9. Labelling and Mislabelling - This is an extreme form of overgeneralisation. Instead of describing your error, you
   attach a negative label to yourself: “I’m a loser” instead of “I didn’t do that well”. When someone else’s behaviour annoys you, you judge him/her as a “loser”. Mislabelling is describing an event with harsh, emotional or judging statements.
10. Personalisation - You blame yourself for being the cause of some negative event for which you were not responsible. So, for example, if something goes wrong and affects others negatively, you take on the blame for it and feel bad.

Any seem familiar to you?
Both you and I need help. We have ways of thinking and processing life that affects our relationship with God and with others.
One of the ways I like to challenge my thinking errors, or the railway tracks of my brain, is to have a consistent diet of truth. I do this by regularly reading my Bible.
Recently I have set myself a goal of reading the whole Bible in a year. Now there are many different reading plans that can help you. I have settled on a plan written by 19th century Scottish preacher Murray McCheyne which takes readers through the New Testament and Psalms twice a year, and through the rest of the Bible once each year. It takes about 20 –25 minutes each day. I do this as the first activity of the day. When my brain is open and ready to receive new input and hasn't been tangled up by the activities of the day.
By the way, how did you react to my idea of daily reading the Bible? Check it out with the common thinking errors list above. What common thinking error did your brain use to try discount the idea of having a daily dose of truth?
I could list off a few of them that would try and stop me allowing God to rewrite my script, but listen to what the writer of Hebrews has to say.

God means what he says. What he says goes. His powerful Word is sharp as a surgeon's scalpel, cutting through everything, whether doubt or defense, laying us open to listen and obey. Nothing and no one is impervious to God's Word. We can't get away from it—no matter what. Hebrews 4:12 (The Message)

May you daily allow your mind to be edited by Gods word.
What thinking errors dominate your mind? How would reading God’s word change them? Leave a comment.
Barry Pearman
Image by illuminaut Creative Commons Flickr
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