The Holy Tension of Matthew 10:16
I really do only write if I feel inspired to do so, so please know that whatever spills out onto these pages (or your inbox) is truly an authentic desire to seek truth and invite you into that journey. As it would happen, the book study The Abiding Together Podcast is re-running on The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, gnabbed me again.
So as I continue to invite you into my journey with these three spiritual mothers, I hope my ponderings and invitations may cause your own heart to stir and perhaps ignite a desire to journey deeper into your own interior life.
What is it to "critically think"?
Etymonline.com so generously tells us that the word critical is an adjective connoting the meaning of "involving judgment as to the truth or merit of something".
The TRUTH of something. Yes and Amen! As a Catholic trained Mindset Coach, that is literally what I was taught to do both for myself and my clients with regards to our thinking. It is a super cool and helpful skill, but beyond its utility there is something so much deeper and profound at work. The desire to do so, the ability to do so, to seek the Truth, is evidence of the Hand of God.
Our minds are designed to guide us to the Truth.
That Intellect and Will those dusty old Catechisms tell us about. The Machinery of our inner workings that allows us to take in, perceive, discern and decide on a daily basis, functions to lead us toward the Truth. We fundamentally know this when we are frustrated by seeking answers we cannot find, when we are not convinced of a friend's excuse or as we justify our actions when we feel unsettled by something we've done. We aren't right when anything is out of alignment with the Truth.
We are made with a Mind with which to Know and a Heart with which to Love the Truth.
These higher capacities of our soul are designed to lead us to Him...good grief, it just blows my mind every time I contemplate this fact.
"You have made us for yourself O Lord" aka you made us with a homing beacon for you, God. Truth. Goodness. We know it when we hear it and we resonate with it when we see it. It's heart knowledge, and we intuitively won't settle for anything less! .
"...and our hearts are restless until they rest in you."
But here's the thing, and I'm looking at everyone in the room when I say this (but especially us scrupulous and self-righteous ones...guilty), Truth cannot exist as a solitary entity - it demands Love. We are not 'in the right' simply because we are technically 'right'. We are challenged in the Bible to be,
"wise as serpents and innocent as doves"
Matthew 10:16
What does that mean?! So often commands from the Bible can sound like riddles and feel very obscure, but I think what this one means is exactly what Michele Benzinger said in her quote shown above, "...[to] critically think without having a critical heart."
To ask questions, to seek the Truth, to withhold immediate judgment as you consider many sides of a situation, to wonder instead of label, to ask as opposed to condemn. And to do all of the above there, as a means of seeking God in all of it and therefore love. If your motive is seeking Truth through eyes of Love, you won't fall into the trap of simply being "wise as serpents", which is only half of the command (and I'm sorry but serpents have always seemed a little deadly to me biblically speaking and otherwise!), and to follow only half a command while ignoring the other part, will get you dysfunction and disorder.
If we learn how to use our git of of Reason for the purpose of finding Truth with Love, people will feel the difference and you ultimately have the potential to lead you both closer to the Lord in your desire to communicate and understand. I think that is what Matthew 10:16 means. To maintain a posture of curiosity and good-will as we seek Truth. We don't get the wool pulled over our eyes, but we don't harden our hearts and forget the dignity of the other in our quest for answers and therefore safeguard our own dignity as well.
This is what I get to do with the people I work with. This is what I could do with you. To listen with a trained ear to understand, to challenge from a place of Truth seeking through the lens of charity. My mission is always to help you see where your thinking is taking you, is it leading you toward God or away from God, simple as that. And if it is a way from God, that is no reason to panic, it is an opportunity for restoration and renewal.
Fractured relationships are always all the stronger after sincere repair, and so it goes with our relationship with the Lord.
I encourage you to come walk with me. I challenge you to consider learning how to think critically while still safe-guarding the tenderness of your heart, and in so doing, sharpen the intellect and will that God gave you so you can be free to truly use these capacities to always know and choose the Truth, to choose Him!
“Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different than it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing into a heavenly creature or a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow creatures, and with itself. To be the one kind of creature is heaven: that is, it is joy and peace and knowledge and power. To be the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, impotence, and eternal loneliness. Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state or the other.”
C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Remember you are Good and You are Loved
God Bless,
Nora
Come join me in this work of getting to know your Interior Life by reaching out for a free Discovery Call or check out the resources available to you below!
Hi, I'm Nora :) Catholic mother, daughter, wife, poet, blogger, podcaster, avid reader, 12-Stepper, and Certified Catholic Mindset and Interior Life Coach. I help people who struggle to see their dignity and value amidst the hardships of life find hope and fulfillment by reworking limiting belief patterns and learning how to know themselves deeply in a way that invites compassion and understanding. I use the tools of Mindset Coaching through the lens of Internal Family Systems to help my clients see the Truth of the Goodness and Beauty of who they are and how they were Made.
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