Let’s recall all the challenges we’ve overcome. If your life has spanned decades, there must be a series of critical moments when you felt helpless and overwhelmed, even fearing for your life. Indeed, some people around you may have lost their lives, while you survived. You may not understand why you survived when others didn’t.
Or perhaps you’re currently in the midst of the worst challenge of your life. Enveloped in darkness, you question if you can survive. You wonder why you must endure this ordeal while others do not. The more you ponder, the more you feel helpless and overwhelmed.
So what should you do?
You can recall all the challenges you’ve overcome thus far. You are still here. You contemplate your existence here and now, thus you exist. This thought process parallels the idea of “cogito, ergo sum.” But in this case, it is a version of realism for survival. Even Descartes’ maxim is not solely a philosophical speculation, but also an existential pursuit.
Who am I? Is my life real? Do I genuinely exist? If so, how can I be sure that my life is not an elusive dream, but a tangible reality?
In moments of extreme despair, people often lose sight of the meaning of their lives. For instance, you might have returned from a deadly war as one of the few survivors. Your traumatic experience must be indescribable. You may require specialized treatment to manage this post-traumatic stress. However, upon your return, all your loved ones, family members, and friends may be gone. Even in your homeland, you’re one of the few survivors.
This situation is allegorical. The point is, you may feel completely helpless, lost in total darkness. Can you find a ray of light?
You might wish this hopeless life to be just a dream, hoping to wake up to a normal, peaceful, happy life. But it seems this is not a dream, but reality. You exist here and now, as you reflect on your life here and now.
Don’t overlook this very reality: that you think, therefore you exist. This is a beacon of hope and a light shining in the darkness.
Touch your face, hands, and feet. It’s real. Who confirms this reality? It’s you. Your thinking assures you of this reality. It’s your life. You exist, you are alive, precisely because you can think.
You can think, therefore you exist.
The power of thinking is often misused, mistakenly considered as a tool for self-deception. Overthinking can breed toxic pessimism when misapplied. However, it is one of the greatest gifts from God, who created us in His image. We can think like God! Why not say in the midst of darkness: Let there be light!
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Genesis 1:3
Speak these words aloud, and this proclamation could be the beginning of your life’s restoration.
For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.
Proverbs 23:7
The aphorism “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he” not only embraces the whole of a man’s being, but is so comprehensive as to reach out to every condition and circumstance of his life. A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.
As a Man Thinketh by James Allen
Image by Joe
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