Think on These Things

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

(Philippians 4:8-9) ESV

By the grace of God we’re intellectually and physically free. We get to think about whatever we want and decide how we spend our time. There are few constraints but we should be mindful not to squander our freedom.

It’s time to take a moment and reflect. We should check to make sure that we’ve hit on all of the issues that pertain to today’s subject matter, but the kind of reflecting that we had in mind is on the amazing grace and mercy of our Lord.

We’ve long pondered what God did and when God did it in terms that relate to the scientific understanding of the universe, but what’s more important? the science or the pondering? Perhaps more important than the physics of creation is the freedom that we have to ponder these things. We’re told that we should keep our minds occupied by thinking of things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely and of good report. The details of creation, though fascinating, are really secondary to the intellectual freedom that we’ve been granted with which to contemplate them.

How much time do we have for thinking, and what are we thinking about? How are we using our intellectual freedom?

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We all have the same evidence. Our choice of paradigm determines what we think it’s evidence of.

– Matty’s Razor

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Intellectual Freedom

Not only is intellectual freedom important, but physical freedom is too. It’s possible to have one or the other, but having both together is pretty rare. What do we mean by that? Intellectual freedom is when our mind isn’t employed by someone else for the advancement of their agenda or purpose. One of the worst jobs that we ever had was compiling the index for a Biochemistry textbook. It was agony to have our mind be completely occupied with someone else’s work. By contrast we can have intellectual freedom when we’re involved in manual labor.

If the worst job we ever had was crunching through complicated Biochemistry, then one of the best jobs we ever had was painting houses. Painting like that is boring. It’s perfect for a day dreamer because we can be content and occupied in a job that pays real money, but our mind is millions of miles away on an adventure somewhere.

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Faith is believing in something that you can’t see, because of evidence.

– Faith, definition

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Physical Freedom

Physical freedom is when we get to come and go as we please and don’t have to run a daily schedule according to someone else’s needs. We may have a schedule and chores to do, but we set them according to our needs. Most jobs are pretty strict about attendance. It’s not normally a major problem, it’s something that we adapt to, but what tends to happen is that we get so tired and run down with the physical task of being employed that it is hard to have the energy when you are finally free to do the things that you want to do.

The worst job in the world is when you are neither intellectually nor physically free. These are the really well paid jobs. You sacrifice your dreams and ambitions for money.

Sometimes it is easy to get distracted into thinking about things that make us frustrated or angry, like a bad rating from a rider or other work and finance related issues. Thankfully we always have the goodness of God to come back to, his loving care and provision, and the miraculous way that he created the world.

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