…..Yesterday I woke up while the house was quiet and bopped downstairs to get with God and spend some time in the Word.  I had good intentions but then suddenly while I was praying and pondering, a negative thought crossed my mind.  It led to another thought, and another and before I knew it…I was feeling ‘ugh’.  Dreary, weak and slightly oppressed.  I began to trace where this sensation was coming from and it had all begun with a single thought…which led to more thinking, retracing, trying to re-do something in my mind…the whole thing colored a good chunk of my morning and robbed me of life, strength, joy, energy and precious time.

It occurred to me that particular thoughts can become my sinkholes – deep, dark  places filled with quicksand. It’s like I’m on my merry way, oblivious of danger, when suddenly I find myself mentally or emotionally tripping into what can become a pit of despair if I don’t crawl out of it quickly!  Oftentimes, it’s ridiculously unimportant in the scope of life and a ‘repeat sinkhole’ that I’ve already spent too much time in previously.

Ephesians 4:17 comes to mind, “So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.” Thinking can be so futile.  Websters defines futile as:  vain, useless, lacking purpose, ineffective, trifling, unimportant, fruitless. 

The longer we think, mull and rehearse, the deeper the black hole becomes and the longer it takes to recover and get back up on top of that thing. 

If we can ‘flag’ our sinkholes, anticipating those weak areas of our thought-life, surely we can leap over them with a little effort, instead of falling into them.  Let’s beware of sinkholes in 2009 as we’re finding God.

Some thinking is fruitful and profitable according to Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.