THE IMPORTANCE OF FIRST THOUGHTS [Su, 12-1-24]

BEYOND WINTER: The Irrelevant Musings of An Old Man--THE IMPORTANCE OF FIRST THOUGHTS [Su, 12-1-24]

 

When our friend, Rosemary, was diagnosed with cancer, her first thought was about her husband. His first wife had died from cancer. “Oh, I don’t want him to have to go through this again,” she said.

When I was told I had cancer, my first thought was, “I’m gonna die!” Helen’s first thought was, “No way I’m gonna let you die!”

There has been quite a bit of research on the emotions of cancer patients. One of the interesting findings is about first thoughts. The cancer patients who are most likely to get well are those whose first thought is to pray.

First thoughts are important. They set the agenda for all that comes after.

In the billions of committee meetings I attended over the years, I learned that who had the first thought controlled the rest of the meeting. If the first thinker said something like, “We’ve already spent too much money,” the rest of the meeting was about money, not about mission, not about the reason for spending money in the first place. And yes, the first thought was almost always about money, which is why Jesus talked more about money than anything else [except forgiveness, which is usually necessary because of the way we deal with money].

When I was writing a biography for Scribner’s American Lives, I called the daughter of my subject to get some personal insights. When I told her what I was doing, her first statement was, “What am I getting out of this?” I told her I could get her a free copy of the book. It was a really good book; biographies of all the important people who died that year. No, she wanted money.

We just elected a president whose first thought about anything is, “What’s in this for me?” Some people are astonished at our electorate. Why would we elect someone like that? Because the first thought of most people, the origin thought, the original sin thought, is, “What’s in it for me?” He’s our kind of guy.

It’s called original sin, because it is part of the origin of the world and part of the origin of each of us. We are all born with exactly the same amount of original sin, the same amount of greed and lust and jealousy and envy and fear and hate. Race makes no difference. Neither does gender or any of the other qualities that differentiate us. Blacks and whites, straights and gays, men and women…whatever your category, you are born with the same amount of original sin as anyone else.

That doesn’t mean we’ll all grow up the same way and act the same way. We are born with differing amounts of potential—intelligence, physical attractiveness and ability, health, family status. How we are raised, and in what era and culture, will make a difference how our natural qualities develop…and, more importantly, whether we learn to deal with our original sin. Whether we get saved.

Christians talk a lot about salvation. All salvation is from original sin. When we are saved, we are saved not from committing wrongs, because mistakes are human, but from original sin. Our first thought is no longer, “What’s in this for me?”

If it is, you aren’t saved, regardless of how many praise songs you sing, or how many Bible verses you can quote.

John Robert McFarland