What Is God Thinking?

(Matthew 16:21-23, Luke 24:44-45 TLB)

Sometimes a verse stops me cold. 

Urges me to park, roll the windows down, and listen hard.

Until I hear what I’m meant to hear there.

Today’s verse can feel like a harsh rebuke, but I don’t hear it that way. 

Instead, I hear an invitation.

To shift a mindset.

Peter’s.

And mine.

You’ll see what I mean . . .

In response to Jesus’ heads-up concerning the crucifixion that is about to happen to Him, Peter blurts:

“Heaven forbid!”

Turning to Peter, Jesus utters the famous, “Get behind me, Satan!”

But immediately following, and this is where I’m parked, Jesus adds:

“You are thinking from a human point of view, and not from God’s.”

Biologically, thinking is the process of billions of neurons firing off electrochemical signals across a vast neural network in the brain.

Like an electrical storm.

No wonder our heads hurt sometimes.

Practically, though, thinking is the sum of internal conversations.

Jesus’ heads-up sends Peter into emotional orbit.

Abruptly rerouting the electrical traffic in his brain.

Gusting in a tornado of uncensored, unfiltered, unbridled thoughts.

I picture a storm of cartoon thought bubbles above his head.

Jostling, colliding, combusting . . .

Until Jesus speaks.

Stilling the overhead bubbles.

I reconsider the words Peter hears.

To hear them as though they are addressed to me.

In light of the thought bubbles above my own head.

And my own internal conversations. 

“You are thinking from a human point of view, and not from God’s.”

Which feels like an invitation to Peter and us to bring Jesus into internal conversations.

To participate in a dialogue.

Instead of a monologue.

Later, after the crucifixion, Jesus appears to Peter, James, and John.

And he opened their minds to understand  . . .

The mind is the organ of receiving God’s thoughts.

It’s easy to confine the “thoughts of God” to how they relate to us.

What God has done for me.

How He has protected me, helped me, blessed me.

As though we are the center of His activity.

Tunnel vision.

Twenty-eight years ago Ron and I attended a charity event with a silent auction.

To my dismay, Ron bid on a Hooters NASCAR rear quarter panel.

And won it.

He was delighted.

I really wasn’t.

Ron’s plan was to display his vintage collectible of 90s NASCAR history on a wall somewhere.

Instead, it’s never left the shed.

Forgotten and gathering dust. 

Until recently.

When I decide the time has come to find the home Ron promised.

I list the hunk-of-junk vintage collectible on FaceBook Marketplace.

My prayer is to find a buyer who will love and display it.

That buyer doesn’t surface.

So the Hooters hardware continues collecting dust.

On my dining room floor.

Until . . .

Enter, the first water restoration technician. (click here to catch up)

It’s love at first sight.

Serious love.

Between the technician and my Hooters hunk-of-junk vintage collectible.

So I gift it to him.

He nearly cries for joy.

I am not exaggerating.  

Later in conversation with God about this unexpected answer to my prayer, I realize it was never about me at all. 

Into the company of thought bubbles over my head, another floats in.

From above. 

My greatest gift to you in this was the joy of watching Me bless someone else!

God’s thoughts.

Instead of mine . . .

See you in a couple weeks.

Love,

PS Just received this texted picture of my sheet metal in its new home. Loved and displayed at last!!!