The Secret of the
Singing Heart

CHAPTER XV

INGROWING THOUGHTS

  A lady said of a certain person who frequently had trouble in her spiritual life, "Her chief trouble is that her thoughts turn inward too much." Ingrowing thoughts, like ingrowing toe nails, are sometimes very painful. There is such a thing as focusing our thoughts too much internally. Wherever we center our thoughts we produce a reaction. Centering our thoughts on our own spiritual difficulties, on our own inner experiences and upon our feelings and sensations, is likely to produce an effect entirely different from that which we desire to produce.

  Dr. Stephen Smith, hale, hearty, and happy at the age of ninety nine, said among other things in stating his philosophy of life, "War has killed its millions, but introspection has killed its tens of millions. Next to an ill advised and over plentiful diet it has shortened more lives than almost any other cause that we can name. The man who is forever thinking about himself is degenerating. The hardest patients I have had to handle were those given to introspection and self analysis."

  Note those persons who are extremely careful about themselves in physical matters. They are always concerned with what effect things will have upon them. They wonder if this will hurt them, and how that will affect them. They are afraid of taking cold, and of this, [98] that, and the other thing. They make living too serious a business. They are nearly always the victims of their own carefulness. The one who gets along well physically usually the one who uses good common sense and practically forgets he has a body.

  In spiritual things it is the people who are always taking their spiritual temperature, and looking at their spiritual tongue, and feeling their spiritual pulse, and measuring their spiritual stature, who have most trouble. Some people are constantly questioning their own motives. They are constantly asking, "Should I have done that?" They give microscopic attention to the details of their life. They are all the time asking, "Did I do right?" "Am I right?" Everything must have a thorough microscopical examination. The smallest detail of life must not be passed without attention.

  It is true that the Bible says, "Examine yourselves," but it has no reference to such microscopic examination. If we should be going somewhere and our foot would slip we should not take for granted that we had turned around and headed in the opposite direction. That one little slip is but an incident in the journey. When the path is observed as a whole that little incident only a trifle. The general course has been forward.

  Some people cannot sing the song of Christian joyfulness because they are too much absorbed in examining themselves. Neither do they feel like singing, for they are constantly finding little faults and magnifying them out of all proportion to their significance. We all know people who have ingrowing thoughts. It is proper for us to pay due heed to ourselves, but this [99] ought to occupy a comparatively small portion of our time. Some people have so much trouble keeping themselves right that they never get anything else done. The trouble is they are making too hard a task of it. The' would be just as nearly right without making half the effort, or perhaps a tenth of the effort. In other words, if they did not make such an effort they would not even then go wrong.

  We need rather to be concerned to have sufficient velocity to produce a momentum that will keep us on the way. When I first started to learn bicycle riding it took all my attention to keep balanced, and in spite of myself I would fall over now and then. I soon became enough accustomed to riding that I guided the wheel automatically, and gave no more attention to balance than when walking. At first I was constantly turning the wheel this way and that. Consequently I made crooked path. That is why many Christians do so poorly. They are so intent upon keeping themselves right that they have their eyes constantly upon them selves. Let them look ahead, become intent on reaching what lies before them, and they will make real progress. They will not fall over nearly so easily as when they are so careful about themselves.

  In studying ourselves and losing sight of others we become morbid. We brood over our shortcomings or seeming shortcomings. We lose our courage. Things look dark and discouraging. We may say that Satan is after us, that he is accusing us. Most accusations have their origin in ourselves. We are accusing our selves. [100] 'We are condemning ourselves and imagine that it is Satan doing so.

  There is a scientific side to this that we ought to understand. There are two parts to our mental being. There are many things that go on in our mind of which are conscious. We think certain things and know we think them. We consciously follow out certain lines or trends of thought. On the other hand, there is a part of our mind of whose workings we are unaware. This is called the subconscious mind.

  You have often noticed that a thought all worked out and complete comes into your mind apparently from nowhere. Or you are suddenly affected by an emotion.

  You cannot account for feeling that emotion. If it is a pleasant emotion, you enjoy it and think little about it.

  If it is an unpleasant one, you may be troubled by and wonder what caused it. The secret of the matter is, things have been going on in your subconscious mind of which you knew nothing. Suddenly what was in your subconscious mind was projected into your conscious mind.

  Perhaps a few days ago you wondered over something that happened, and questioned whether or not you were what you ought to be spiritually. That thought presently faded out of your mind. You thought no more about it. A week, two weeks, or a month later, you suddenly, and without any seeming reason, felt a sense of condemnation come over you. You wondered what caused it. Perhaps you thought Satan was at work. the only trouble was you did not understand that the thought you had the other day and had forgotten about [101]