Just when I thought I was over the hump, here I am again climbing back up through the painful, cold, dark path striving to get over it again. Just as you get comfortable with where you are and seemingly take that sigh of relief, that’s when you realize there is more work to be done. This is my currently reality that has come with the stresses of life. The stresses of a new schedule with a new job, being separated from my husband soon as he departs to work away, and of a big move on the horizon, all have crept up clouding my mind and triggering the lament fears, visions, pains, and thoughts that remain post car wreck.
Many of this can be classified as a very real problem, PTSD. The Mayo Clinic defines PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) as “a mental health condition that’s triggered by a terrifying event — either experiencing it or witnessing it. Symptoms may include flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event.” In my experience I deal with all of the above… the flashbacks, anxiety, and uncontrollable thoughts post car collision. The best way that I can explain my PTSD is that my mind and body are often in defense mode. Any stress or conflict that may arise is not processed in a rational way. It’s as if my brain is so inundated with the trauma that it thinks everything is trauma and it must automatically go back to that place in order to defend. Any little noise, scare, or stress is a potential trigger for anxiety, flashbacks, or irrational thoughts.
We all deal with things. Whether as traumatic as being hit in a head on car collision or not, there are the things that happen in our lives that we are left to deal with, process, and control. Much of PTSD seems out of my control. The diagnosis even even includes the term “uncontrollable thoughts” in the list of symptoms.
Because we live in this fallen world, a world away from the things of God and what He has for us, things that are not meant to happen to us do. Those things in turn create a way of thinking as we process them and learn to deal. Much of what happens to us in life is in fact out of our control. However, the way we deal with what has happened is very much within our control. The Word says
“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
Romans 12:2
In order to take control and see the transformation, I want to highlight three important steps to get there.
- Awareness. We must learn to first identify our thoughts, the root in which they stem, and begin tracking them as to better understand them. The often quoted scripture “take every thought captive” is a commandment that requires real action. Whether you monitor your thoughts or not, they are still happening. We must learn to control our thoughts or they will control us. Taking time daily to sit with our thoughts helps us to better be aware of them.
- Testing/Trying. By taking every thought captive you are literally taking hold of it and deciding what to do with it. In the deciding we must then learn to test these thoughts and line them up with the Word. In the testing we must ask ourselves if our thoughts are true, lovely, and pure (Philippians 4:8). The psalmist David not only sets the example of studying his thoughts, but He models the practice of asking God to actually search his mind to help him align with truth as he says “Search me, O God, and know my heart: test me, and know my thoughts:” (Psalms 139:23). This is the step that can be tricky and easily misunderstood. By asking God to test our thoughts and lining them up with truth, we are not denying that they are there or “willing them away”. However, we are learning to take those actual real thoughts and determine if they are truth or not.
- Renewing. This is the part of the process that really takes the most time. There is real scientific evidence that we can create new patterns and pathways in our brains. Thoughts that we have and have had for years create grooves in our minds that overtime arise naturally. Once something happens our mind immediately thinks the way it always has and takes the path it’s always taken…unless we change it. Changing our thoughts is an intentional task that takes much effort. In order to create a new pathway in our brains to believe differently, we must literally go against the grain to form new patterns. I know you’ve read that it takes 21 days to form a new habit, and research shows it takes even longer to ingrain a new habit into the brain. If you continue to combat the lies that you have chosen to believe about who you are with the truth of who God says you are and has intended you to be, you can eventually start believing those truths and entirely renew your mind. It takes work. It takes effort. It is hard, but you can do hard things especially through Christ who gives strength (Philippians 4:13).
This is the year that I am believing for wholeness-in my body, soul, spirit, and mind. After the first step of having the faith to believe this, I am certain that the next step is putting in the work and learning to control my thoughts. The Holy Spirit cannot speak to us if our hearts and minds are cluttered by the things of this world, by the things that have happened to us, the things we have done, and by the lies we have been believing. We have to first declutter and make room so that we can truly hear from God through the Holy Spirit. Jesus as He was talking to His disciples and asking them to pray with Him, said this from the Garden of Gethsemane as He sat with His very own thoughts and cried out to God aligning them with truth, “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Matthew 26:41 Our flesh is just like theirs. It is quick to cry out over the things of this world distracting us from what our spirit needs. We need to hear from God. We need to be one with the Holy Spirit. We need to be with Him in His Word to think like Him, talk like Him, and be like Him. If anyone has the ability to have a mind like Christ, loving what He loves, and thinking like He thinks, than who better than us, His people who were made in His image.
But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For “who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
I Corinthians 2:14-16 NKJV
