{"id":1506,"date":"2011-05-25T09:02:49","date_gmt":"2011-05-25T09:02:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cvmen.org.uk\/blog\/?p=1506"},"modified":"2015-02-16T10:35:39","modified_gmt":"2015-02-16T10:35:39","slug":"selective-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/friends-of-cvm\/selective-thinking\/","title":{"rendered":"Selective Thinking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In my childhood my ears were amazing. I mean they are still pretty awesome and everything, but in my childhood, man they were good. They could hear a bag of sweets being opened from two miles away, while simultaneously ignoring a request to complete a chore issued from less than two metres. I know what you\u2019re thinking \u2013 gifted child. And you\u2019d be right, unless you spoke to my parents.<\/p>\n<p>If you ask my wife Anna she might claim I still suffer from selective hearing, especially when the vacuuming needs doing or the dishwasher needs emptying. Personally I don\u2019t sweat it, I\u2019m more concerned with my worrying case of selective thinking. You know what I mean? The kind of thinking where I push to the back of my mind all the stuff I don\u2019t want to think about, be that the questions about God I simply have no answer for, or choosing to ignore the standards I know I should be implementing in my life.<\/p>\n<p>Because thinking about them is only half the story. Doing them is the other bit. Maybe that\u2019s why I disengage the brain so frequently \u2013 it\u2019s easier not to get depressed by thinking about all the things I should be doing. It\u2019s easier to distract myself in a world full of five minute fads and constant noise.<\/p>\n<p>Philippians 4:8-9 \u2018Summing it all up, friends, I\u2019d say you\u2019ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious\u2014the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.\u2019 (The Message)<\/p>\n<p>Jesus certainly knew what He was saying when He told us to love Him with all of our hearts, our bodies and our minds.<\/p>\n<div class=\"linkwithin_hook\" id=\"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/friends-of-cvm\/selective-thinking\/\"><\/div><script>\n<!-- \/\/LinkWithinCodeStart\nvar linkwithin_site_id = 897245;\nvar linkwithin_div_class = \"linkwithin_hook\";\n\/\/LinkWithinCodeEnd -->\n<\/script>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/widget.js\"><\/script>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.linkwithin.com\/pixel.png?w=750\" alt=\"Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...\" style=\"border: 0\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In my childhood my ears were amazing. I mean they are still pretty awesome and everything, but in my childhood, man they were good. They could hear a bag of sweets being opened from two miles away, while simultaneously ignoring a request to complete a chore issued from less than two metres. I know what [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<script>\n<!-- \/\/LinkWithinCodeStart\nvar linkwithin_site_id = 897245;\nvar linkwithin_div_class = \"linkwithin_hook\";\n\/\/LinkWithinCodeEnd -->\n<\/script>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/widget.js\"><\/script>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/pixel.png\" alt=\"Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...\" style=\"border: 0\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":5869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[20,23,74,87,90,110,113,287],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/friends-blog-640x360.jpg?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7PoLK-oi","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4348,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/demolition-squad\/belief-in-god-its-just-wishful-thinking\/","url_meta":{"origin":1506,"position":0},"title":"Belief in God: It&#8217;s Just Wishful Thinking","date":"7 June 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cYou only believe in God because you want someone to be there. You want your life to have meaning and purpose, you want the comfort of knowing someone is in control of it all. In short, your faith is simply a psychological crutch.\u201d Have you come across some form of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Demolition Squad&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/the_god_argument.jpg?fit=325%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6451,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/demolition-squad\/the-challenge-from-suffering-logic-love-and-free-will\/","url_meta":{"origin":1506,"position":1},"title":"The Challenge from Suffering: Logic, Love, and Free Will","date":"13 November 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 The following is an extract from 'The Ulimate Survival Guide: How to talk about God, the Bible, and stuff'. The Problem of Evil is something that has gripped the attention of many of the brightest minds throughout history. If God loves us, cares for us, wants our best, then\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Demolition Squad&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/challenge-from-evil-logic-love-free-will.jpg?fit=800%2C400&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4074,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/the-welford\/the-first-man-pt-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":1506,"position":2},"title":"The First Man &#8211; Pt 1","date":"24 April 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I was recently asked to do a five minute talk for a mens breakfast. As I pondered what to talk about I thought about Adam. The first man. The blueprint. But as it turns out Adam didn\u2019t do all that well. The story goes that God made a helper for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Welford&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6477,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/demolition-squad\/the-challenge-from-suffering-what-is-good\/","url_meta":{"origin":1506,"position":3},"title":"The Challenge from Suffering: What is &#8216;Good&#8217;?","date":"20 November 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"'What possible good reasons would God have for permitting evil?' This is a question often voiced when\u00a0an explanation of why God might allow suffering is presented. The Free Will argument\u00a0goes some way to providing\u00a0an explanation for why a good God might allow suffering. To add to this line of thought\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Demolition Squad&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/ultimate-survial-guide.jpg?fit=654%2C1000&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1475,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/friends-of-cvm\/habit\/","url_meta":{"origin":1506,"position":4},"title":"Habit","date":"27 April 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cI figured you\u2019d ask me where I\u2019m at with God stuff so I spent a few hours last night thinking about the answer to that question.\u201d I didn\u2019t expect Matt to come out with that. I didn\u2019t realise I was so predictable. We only had an hour or so for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Friends of CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/friends-blog-640x360.jpg?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7008,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/thoughts-from-the-cvm-team\/mind-games\/","url_meta":{"origin":1506,"position":5},"title":"Mind Games","date":"24 May 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The other week I was off work for 3 days due to a sickness bug, nothing serious just one of those bugs that seem to knock the stuffing out of you completely and leave you rolling about the floor wishing your mum was around to nurse you better. I had\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Team CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/armour-of-god.jpg?fit=565%2C350&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1506"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1506"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5886,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1506\/revisions\/5886"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}