I have had two novel thoughts. For those of you who know me, having two thoughts to begin with is cause for celebration, but these thoughts I believe are better than ordinary thoughts, they are -novel- thoughts.
Through my junior high and high school careers, I have come to believe two things are absolute. The first thought, "You can accomplish more when you are away, than when you are asleep." The second thought, "Exercise, makes you stronger."
Those are the thoughts. Those are the two things that I have just now come into understanding. You can accomplish more when you are awake, than when you are asleep, and exercise makes you stronger. I will afford some reasoning behind why I have come to these conclusions or why I call them novel, and perhaps rest your concern for my mental welfare.
I say that you can accomplish more when you are awake, than when you are asleep, because when you are asleep, work is not done at all. I was finding myself to feel overwhelmed a day or so ago. I get this way often when I look at my "to-do" list, or at the paper accusing me of failing to make a "to-do" list. I began to think through why it was, that so many things still needed to be done, and there was simply not enough time for it. Then it hit me, I WAS ASLEEP.
I have been spending the majority of my free time sleeping in to the ever-convicting double digits of the day. It seems that I've been missing out on a good three to four hours of valuable time to get things accomplished because I would wake up at 10:00, get out of bed by 10:30, and be on my way to school at around 1:00 or 5:00, leaving me a meager 2 and a half hours to 7 hours of working time, respectively.
Granted, I would spend most nights, staying up till 2-3 am, but there are a very limited amount of things that can be done at this time that benefit anyone other than one's self. It was this realization that brought me to novel thought number 1.
Novel thought number 2 has been brewing for a while. I have found myself struggling with things pertaining to thought. I have a hard enough time keeping my mind focused on the tasks at hand, but this struggle has been ever growing. I've been finding myself thinking increasingly more and more shallow about truths that ought to be plumbed with a weight a thousand times heavier than what I was using. And then it hit me; I have not been exercising my mind.
The last time that I read a book that didn't fall in the category of manual or text book, had to have dated back to the days of the ubiquitous gold star charts and dollar a piece mystery novels. No disrespect to Dixon and her Hardy Boys or trusty Encyclopedia Brown, but I have long since moved to a level where my repituare should include meatier disciplines. Sure I've dabbled in a book here, learned about Shooting an Elephant there, but it has been a long time since I have journeyed from cover to cover of a good book, and I'd almost say never, through a book of spiritual context.
That is why I am now learning how to fight for joy with John Piper. My mind has been malnourished. I have not been giving it the proper food or training that it requires. The irony of this all, is while I numbed my mind to sleep with feather pillows and 2-bit magazine articles, a slept not 7 feet from a store house of John Piper and John Macarthur, dutifully waiting their turns for this "modern" teenager to wakeup and begin a meal that should last him the rest of his life. It was time for my mind to wakeup and get some exercise, something my body could use a fair dose of well these days. But that will be in the morning.
