Curtis Klingle

Guard our Hearts and Minds

This essay was inspired by the incessant battles I personally face with my own mind, emotions, and memories. If you are not in the midst of something similar, then I would dare say you are not thinking, and I would suggest checking your pulse to ensure you are still among the living.

I have no advanced education in psychology and would consider myself nothing more than a layman, and quite possibly a poor one at that. However, I thoroughly enjoy the topic and try to stay abreast of recent discoveries. I do however consider myself at the very least, an above average bible student. Interestingly, the bible has much to say about the mind of man, often referred to as the “heart” and the woes it causes. I will include a few applicable scriptures at the end as sort of a summation of what I present here in this writing. It is my hope and prayer that this provides some help to someone out there and brings Him glory in the process.   

Our brains are in constant thought and there is always something playing on the screen of our minds. What really intrigues me is that though the mind belongs to us, it is after all, our mind, if left to its own devices it will get itself and us along with it into all sorts of trouble. Like a mischievous child playing with matches, it can set a forest aflame. When our mind is actively engaged, it will do our bidding, well, for the most part. Let it slip into neutral and it is once again off to the races. Our mind will find something to do and it is usually in the realm of worry, ruminating, or mulling over something that is negative. One of its favorite pastimes is to recall and then repeatedly rehash some perceived wrong, as if it can fix the problem after any chance of retort or defense has long expired. We are constantly in search of vindication. A thought will enter unobtrusively and before we know it, we have been entertaining that thought for several minutes. By the time you do discover it, I can assure you, your heart rate has already elevated if it is in the realm of worry or anxiety. I have come to believe that some thoughts even come to us surreptitiously, quite possibly from the minions of the enemy. These too will have fully permeated our brains long before we recognize them for what they are. These latter are usually evil thoughts, those bearing malevolence, hate, pride, lust, and those seeking justice and revenge. These seem to be the ones that creep in the easiest and are also the hardest to vanquish. As soon as you quash it in one place and begin thinking relatively good thoughts, it pops up somewhere else. Like a leaky old water line, you repair one leak and another spot breaks, then another, and another, and another… But let us not give too much credit to the devil, for we are quite adept at causing as much or more misery than he. There are quite possibly times that he turns away abashed witnessing the things we do to one another.

All of our thoughts and experiences are recorded to memory and will have emotion attached to them, and our life experiences come through our senses. In some cases, these adhering emotions will be minimal while in others the memory may be enveloped in emotion. Our emotions are intricate to the storage of our memories. Have you ever noticed how a word, a song, something you see, or even a scent can evoke an old memory? I am sure you have also noted that there are emotions intermingled with those old memories. I can remember as a boy, passing a lemon tree walking home from school. I would wait until those lemons ripened, and for a couple of weeks or more I would pick one from the tree on my way home (sometimes two). If I buy lemons at the grocery store today, no memory is recalled about that tree. However, if I pick a lemon, or fruit from any tree for that matter, that memory will likely be elicited. I’ll provide another example of memories about similar things that are stored with vastly different information. I love roses and whenever I smell them, I always think of my grandmother and her love and passion for growing them. However, when I see a yellow rose, the memory of a lost love always comes to mind. In the former example the memory is activated by my olfactory sense and the latter through ocular. When I see the yellow rose my mind is often flooded with sorrow and regret, while when I smell a rose, my heart is filled with joy and happiness. The memory is stored with the senses it was filtered through as well as the accompanying emotion.  

The brain is extremely efficient and excels at creating automated responses. This is accomplished through the creation of neuropathways, and in most cases these responses are good and meant to keep us safe. For example, while cooking if your hand feels heat, you will immediately retract it and thus it keeps you from burning yourself. You learned this, more than likely the hard way as a child, as most of us do. Your parents undoubtedly told you to keep your hand away from something hot, but invariably, you had to make that experiment for yourself, sometimes many times over. After all, experience is the greatest teacher.

If we are repeatedly exposed to a stimulus and have a similar reaction in these incidents, a neuropathway is created to eliminate the need for evaluation of the stimulus and speed up reaction time. In other words, we react without thinking. A neuropathway can be created in a single event if the person experiences trauma. A good analogy of a neuropathway would be a cattle trail or a game trail. These paths will always be a path of least resistance and require no real thought to follow. Animals, like us, do not want to expend any more energy than they have to, and this is comparable to what happens in our brains. Remember, the brain is all about efficiency, so these trails are created. These neuropathways are meant to accelerate reaction time and while good in keeping us safe, they can be incredibly bad as well. These neuropathways can also be created when our minds do not process the information in an event correctly. A prime example is when a child experiences abuse, their little minds cannot process the event and will often times “bury” the memory. Though the latent memory of the event is no longer accessible to him, he will still react to a similar or perceived similar stimulus. This continues into adulthood. What you will find is that quite often that “angry” person you know was the victim of abuse, though in many cases, they are unaware of the abuse, only that they are angry. One of the reasons old habits or old ways of thinking are so difficult to break or change is that a neuropathway was formed in the creation of the habit or behavior. Going back to the cattle trail analogy, if you put something in the middle of that path, the animal will go around the object, and then simply get right back on the old path. Thus, merely blocking the path is an exercise in futility. If you want to create a new path, you must completely destroy the old trail in order for a new trail to be made. Similarly, the old neuropathway must be dismantled and destroyed.

Our minds also do not distinguish between what is real and what is imagined, at least not physiologically. I’ll elaborate. The brain reacts to our thoughts in a real event and one occurring solely in our imaginations in much the same way. Have you ever watched a scary movie and felt your heart rate speed up as the tension built? Was this a real event? I have read studies that have been conducted in this realm and one in particular stands out to me. In this report, a downhill skier was equipped with the necessary monitoring devices to measure his heart rate, blood pressure, and other physiological reactions, as well as his brain activity. They later, in a laboratory setting, conducted the test again, but this time the skier while seated in a chair, was asked to simply imagine himself downhill skiing. When the results were compared, the findings were nearly identical.   

Imagine a confrontation with someone you perceive as an enemy. Imagine this incident turns into a physical confrontation. We have all done this and how does it usually end? Well, with your enemy defeated. But let’s carry that a bit further. What if this person is someone you bear hatred for, someone you would like to eliminate from your life, in fact, eliminate from their own life. Think about all of the murders and atrocities that have taken place in the minds of men. In a 1998 study conducted by the American Psychiatric Association, it was estimated that by the age of 18 a child had seen 6,000 simulated murders and 200,000 acts of violence. In a study just six years later in 2004 and published by the National Library of Medicine, the average video game contained 61 human deaths per hour of game play and they noted that the player was actually rewarded for these deaths. Let’s say you allow your child to play his video game for two hours a day. That would equal 112 deaths per day. In a year that would equal 40,880 deaths attributed to your child and for which he was subsequently rewarded.       

I served as a paratrooper in the Army from 82 through 85. When we went to the target range, we shot silhouettes targets. These targets were basically a very rough outline of a human shape. Imagine something like a cube with the two upper right angles of the cube slightly rounded over to resemble a person’s shoulders, and atop the cube sat an oval shape simulating the head. That was the target we shot at from ranges of 50 out to 400 meters. Fast forward 11 years to 1996 when I attended the FBI observer/sniper school. Targets changed drastically in that course. The targets were human faces, typically photographs, though some included the upper body, while others depicted a hostage situation. What I found especially curious was the focus upon eye detail. Initially when you looked through the rifle scope there was, or rather you would hope there was, some slight hesitation as you focused upon that face. I know I experienced it, and I found it disconcerting as I viewed a pair of eyes looking back at me. I shot so many rounds during this training that my right shoulder, right pectoral muscle, and most of my upper right torso, was heavily bruised. But, by the end of the school what I found was that I could shoot those faces with absolutely no hesitation at all. My shot placement and accuracy were paramount to anything that I felt during the process. Congratulations Mr. K., you have just been desensitized.

Think about all of those war movies, thrillers, action films, and slasher movies you have seen. Each one of those has helped to desensitize you. Now add in video games and as we have seen, these latter have been able to accomplish more desensitization than anything else devised by men. And we have not even touched the topic of pornography. The results of this particular vice will destroy you from every angle. Anxiety, depression, destroyed relationships, desensitization of pleasure responses, much like that which occurs to a drug user, and violence against women. What is more, there is an erosion of the prefrontal cortex where resides the seat of our ability to determine what is moral, our willpower, and control of our impulses. The list goes on and on.    

These are but two of the myriads of reasons why we must guard our hearts and our minds. Anything that we allow to enter our brain will become a memory. Anything we allow in repeatedly will create a neuropathway and could and likely will desensitize us. Our minds are constantly evaluating information and it truly is like a computer in that it relies solely upon the information that is entered into it and stored in its data banks. And like that computer, if we put garbage into it, we will get garbage out of it. 

At no other time in history has man faced what we do in this modern world. There is a constant barrage of images and sounds upon our senses by peripheral stimuli, so much so that it can be difficult to even think. All stimulus will elicit thoughts and emotions of some type. As we have learned, all thoughts have accompanying emotions. On a positive note, if the stimulus, is say birds singing at dawn to the newly awakening world, thoughts of beauty and a sense of peace will also be present. I have had many Numinous experiences in natural settings while taking in God’s handiwork. But what about a reverberating heavy bass sound in excess of 80 decibels? I know for me personally, I find it extremely offensive and it will elicit immediate disdain, even hate. I despise, abhor, and have nothing but contempt for any “music” with heavy bass, actually, it can be a base sound from any source. This in turn will bring about malevolent thoughts and oh the horrors that can run through my mind. Now notice I used the word, “immediate.” If I am experiencing an immediate reaction to a stimulus, then it is obvious to me that there has been a neuropathway created. And how did it get there? By being exposed to the stimulus repeatedly and allowing myself to react the same way in each incident. My brain knows to react this way because it is a perceived threat, and because it is a threat, it wants to save me time in reacting. That particular neuropathway has been in place, and subsequently reinforced for over 55 years.

We all have these triggers, and some can even take control of us. There is a term called “emotional hijacking” and it is as good a term as any for what happens in that state. The emotions override frontal lobe activity, in fact most activity is being directed by what is termed “mid brain thinking” and comprises most of our animal instincts. In this state you are out of control and incapable of reasoning or logical thought.

With the advent of the internet and smart phones, we have ready access to good things as well as that which is evil. We can read the bible, commentaries, daily devotionals, and other books, all through our phones. We can also view death, destruction, propaganda, pornography, and every other sort of filth you can possibly imagine and it is right at our fingertips. What is more, there is a handy little button you can now push which will allow us privacy to view these things. It is interesting to me that this “Private” button is so easily accessed in order to hide what it is we are looking at. A true test of one’s walk with Christ and your devotion to Him is the ability to be able to hand over your phone to your spouse, a friend, or anyone really. If there is something in there you need to conceal, then there is something wrong.  

We must constantly be checking our thoughts. When we do find that we are thinking about something questionable, we must follow what the scripture tells us to do, that being to take every thought captive as Paul instructed the Corithian church in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5.  Please understand that in this passage Paul is specifically addressing false teachers that have crept into the church, and in these passages, he provides instructions that are applicable to us today.     

“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. ⁴ For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, ⁵ casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ…”

What Paul is telling us is that yes, we are mortal and we are not exempt from the frailties that all flesh suffers, and even the best of us can fail. Paul declares that our weapons are not carnal but are weapons of God. This war is against the corrupt and sensual desires that rage in our hearts, it is against the principalities and powers of darkness mentioned in Ephesians 6:11-17. We are against anything that opposes Christ. I tell people to imagine themselves being knighted into the army of Christ and you will gain a different perspective on your role in this war. This is also what Paul was referring to. Paul identified himself as a soldier in Jesus’ army. It is by the truth of the gospel and the power of almighty God that we are victorious. We are to bring every thought into submission and under control.

Each of us is broken and everyone one of us suffers from some malady. Sin has drastically altered the way our brains were meant to work. Jeremiah 17:9 states, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” What Jeremiah is saying is that we can’t even trust ourselves. How many of us can honestly say we know ourselves completely? If you can declare that, then you have far exceeded all the rest of us on this planet.  

I love studying the human brain and I recently read the results of a study directed at the way we see things. The optic nerve is the only nerve which goes directly to the brain. Interestingly, it sends more information from the brain forward than it does from the eye to the brain. Upon reading this it brought to mind words of Jesus recorded in Matthew 6:22-23, “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. ²³ But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” 2000 years before this study was conducted, Jesus Christ described its results; what we see is filtered through our minds.  

To further explain this forward movement of information from the brain to the eye, and why we cannot always trust what we see, I will share another experience that occurred while on the job. I recall seeing a man walking down the side of the road, his erratic gate and occasional stumbling made me believe he was heavily intoxicated. Upon interviewing him I found that he walked that way because of a physical abnormality. My brain did not take this possibility into account, but sent messages forward which were based upon my experiences; it merely assumed that people who walked abnormally were intoxicated. This was a prime case of my mind sending information forward through my optic nerve. Again, we must be vigilant in guarding our heart and mind, even from the things we think we know.

Paul, writing to the church at Philippi in Philippians 4:6-7 gave some very practical advice to the believers there. “Be anxious in nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; ⁷ and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”  

This verse should intrigue us. We are instructed to not be anxious, but exactly what does that mean? It is defined as “experiencing worry, unease, or nervousness, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.” This can be real or perceived. Remember, the brain cannot distinguish between what is real and what is not. A second definition of anxiety is “wanting something very much, typically with a feeling of unease.” Doesn’t this describe lust? We can lust for virtually anything, not just sexual gratification. So, we are told not to be anxious about anything!

Are you seeing the pattern here? All of our troubles are with obedience and disobedience, we either follow Christ, or are following the enemy, and it all begins in the mind. But sometimes the mind simply won’t, well, mind! Paul described this dichotomy that dwells within each of us, “For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.” Romans 7:15-25. Our lives are ones of despair without Jesus. They would be hopeless and quite frankly, not worth living. I personally have no desire to live without Him, because it is only through Him that I can be fruitful and experience love and the love for others. It is the recognition that the mind must be retrained, old neuropathways must be destroyed and new ones built. I want every reaction to be in line with Him and strive for that with all of my heart. Henry Drummond wrote a treatise on the subject of love, many years ago titled, “The Greatest Thing in The World.” I reference this little book often because it has affected me so deeply. Drummond said, “Souls are made sweet not by taking the acid fluids out, but by putting something in—a great Love, a new Spirit, the Spirit of Christ.” The way to tearing down the old neuropathways and changing our old ways of doing things, of breaking those old habits, and of creating new neuropathways is truly through God’s Word.

I include the following passages as they are instructions pertaining to our thoughts and the path to changing them:    

Philippians 2:5-8 “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, ⁷ but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” 

Philippians 2:1-4 “Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, ² fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. ³ Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. ⁴ Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.”

Philippians 4:8-9 ^“Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. ⁹ The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.

I sometimes refer to this never-ending battle with the enemy as a war of attrition. However, when you think about the enemy’s resources which are nearly limitless, it becomes a different kind of war. It is more like being in the trenches in World War I and the enemy has an interminable supply of artillery shells. You hunker down during the perpetual bombardment of the enemy’s spiritual artillery. During this fuselage you are being protected, covered by Christ himself. He takes the brunt of the enemies assail, every explosion and piece of shrapnel is either deflected or absorbed by Him. Nothing gets past His protection. The only reason we fail in this war, or rather these individual battles with our thoughts, is we fail to take them captive. We climb out of the safety of the trench thereby leaving our Protector behind. As soon as we breech the top, we are greeted with a hail of machine gun fire from the enemy. (Read- Ephesians 6, “…above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.”) I present a paradox though, if we stay in the trenches, we are absolutely useless in this war. We must climb out of the trench, but we cannot and will not win any battle on our own. To step out without Him, is to become a casualty before we even begin to fight. Our natural bent is to succumb to temptation, we are weak and fallible creatures with a propensity towards evil. When we yield to temptation, we are in essence, betraying the Flag of Christ and fleeing to the side of the enemy. Our hearts are ever fickle and traitorous. I cannot fathom why He would even waste His time on us, but yet He does. We will continually be taken out of the fight until we commit ourselves to Him. If we don the armor of Christ, we can step out of the trenches and still be covered by Him, for the armor is Him. We can and will be victorious. We must remind ourselves that the reality is we are in constant conflict with the principalities and powers of the air. This is a spiritual battle against every evil thing that raises itself against God. This present darkness is what we fight against. If we can keep that in mind, then the gravity of taking our thoughts captive can truly be felt.

In closing, I include a quote from Alexander MacLeron. If you have never read his commentaries, I would highly suggest you do so. His love for Christ is evident in all he writes, and I am often driven to tears by his words.

“We are Christians in the measure in which we surrender our wills to Christ. That surrender rests upon, and is our only adequate answer to, His surrender for us. The ‘obedience of Christ’ is perfect freedom; His captives wear no chains and know nothing of forced service; His yoke is easy, not because it does not press hard upon the neck but because it is lined with love, and ‘His burden is light’ not because of its own weight but because it is laid on us by love and is carried by kindred love. He only commands himself who gladly lets Christ command him. Many a hard task becomes easy; crooked things are straightened out and rough places often made surprisingly plain for the captives of Christ, whom He leads into the liberty of obedience to Him.”

Let us each practice diligently the art of taking every thought captive. As MacLeron said, “We are Christians in the measure in which we surrender our wills to Him.”

C. Klingle