How do we break free from triviality in order to cultivate habits of deep thinking and

all for the sake of increasing our delight in God?

It's a question that comes to us from a podcast list named Michael.

Hello Pastor John, how do you think deeply when you have created by whichever way a superficial

manner of thinking that skirts matters and gets bored before you have gotten to any

real depth?

And if you do get bored, how can you challenge yourself to still engage with a matter or

a biblical passage without feeling blasé?

Michael has given half the answer to his question, I think.

He has said, how do you think deeply when you have created a superficial manner of thinking?

This is really a huge part of the answer to the last half of this question, namely, what

do you do if you get bored before you even engage with the biblical passage long enough

to see anything profound?

And the answer to that second half of the question is addressed in the first half, namely,

the more basic superficial mindset needs to be reversed, that superficial mindset that

has built up over time needs to be undone, reversed.

And I think this is a very perceptive question and touches on an issue that is epidemic among

human beings in general in every age and perhaps more than ever in our age of ever present

distraction by superficial input from every manner of media.

The epidemic I'm talking about is the tragic loss of wonder and amazement and all joyful

discovery of beauties and glories in the world and in the word and in our own selves, the

loss of human beings really are glorious creatures, a little less than God, the psalmist says,

...