Yesterday I was helping a student prepare for our upcoming final. He’s an “A” student with little to truly worry about, but in showing his passion for excellence, he builds stress and anxiety wishing for near-perfection. It’s something those with a deep desire to accomplish have. It drives you. It’s what makes those “A” students do the extra for bonus points; ask any professor and they’ll tell you that most of the time, the only people who take you up on free extra credit are the students who don’t really need it.
And yet, in our conversation, there was something else that he was dealing with. I won’t give you the details because its private between us, but in our discussion, we came to the reality that all of us have that voice in your head. It’s there, constantly. Sometimes it’s a voice of reason. Other times it’s a voice of derision. It can be a voice providing confidence or it can be a voice undercutting your worth.
I’m sure the psychology professors can share some big word or idea about this voice in your head, but for our purposes, just know that everyone has it. When that voice seems to always give you doubt, telling you that you aren’t as good as others, that everyone else has it all together but you are a loser, that you’ll never measure up….IT IS LYING!
In particular it lies to you when it gives you the idea that only you have this voice in your head, that everyone else just magically is confident all the time and clearly has their act together. Nope!
Instead, everyone walks around with this ongoing monologue.
So, is there anything to do about it? I say yes! You turn the voice into your own cheerleader. And the Bible shares how to do that. Writing to the church in Corinth, the critical municipality on the isthmus between Athens and old Sparta (long since gone in importance by the time Paul arrives), the church leader Paul says this about the mind:
II Corinthians 10:5–We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
Do you see it? “take captive every thought” There is an active part to play in your interchange with that voice. You are actually in control. Part of the secret of the whole thing is that the voice is not some other force against you. The Devil is not able to read or invade your mind. That voice is you. Now, that voice can be influenced by other factors such as things you watch, the broken world around you, how others treat you and so forth….but ultimately it is you.
Thus, as your thoughts emerge in your mind, you have the power. It’s perhaps somewhat like Neo in The Matrix first starting to understand the power when he first visits the Oracle. Remember the scene? The little child is sitting and bending a spoon with his mind; Neo is perplexed and the child says “there is no spoon.” Neo keeps that mantra for later when he needs to do something that his mind tells him he can’t—-“there is no spoon.”
Those thoughts in your head, that voice you hear, is something you control. There is no spoon, and you can thus bend your mind to your will. You can take every thought captive.
Now don’t miss the rest. As a Christian, I know the next step is critical. I don’t just take the thoughts captive and leave it imprisoned. No, I take it to Jesus, and in doing so, “make it obedient to Christ.”
I hope my A student relaxes, of course puts in the work in preparation, but cuts himself some slack. He isn’t a loser or any more weird than the rest of us (we are all weird…or as C.S. Lewis said best, “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal”). So, when that voice comes to suggest there could be something wrong with you, just take the thought captive, take it to Jesus, and let Him remind you of your great worth.