It was a curiously placed line. Truthfully, I have glossed over it countless times without even noticing it was there. Almost like filler to make sure the paper contained the minimum required number of words so the professor would accept it. But this most recent time it smacked me in the head and I realized just how powerful it was. An important reminder to do what most of us fail to do enough of...think!
"Think about what I am saying. The Lord will help you understand all these things." (2 Timothy 2:7)
Thinking is the essence of who we are.
While we spend most of our lives doing and reacting, Paul reminds us to stop and think. Our thinking creates our beliefs, our beliefs create our convictions, and our convictions drive our behaviors. What Paul is reminding Timothy is not just to receive the information, slow down, and think about it to the point of understanding it in such a way that it influences his beliefs and translates into action. In other words, what you know isn't nearly as important as what you do.
Legendary basketball coach Jim Valvano says that there are three things you should do every day. "If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day", he says. "You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special."
If you want a special life, slow down a little and think. Your thinking is the launching point for being.