Efficiency without meaning accomplishes much meaninglessness. However, for those who like mysteries, life is an ongoing one. The more I ponder it, the more I marvel that I can think and perceive at all.
To analyze is to attempt to figure things out. To ponder is to engage in observation and perception. Analysis establishes definition. Pondering flows with intuition and recognition. I think pondering takes place at a deeper level than the rational mind and often without words. It’s more of an inner stirring.
Whenever you think you have life figured out, you’ve stopped pondering what it’s all about. If you’re trapped in analysis paralysis, turn your heart to ponder wonder, and delight in the amazing realities around you.
Awe will make us pensive and open to the greatness of life. Without awe, it’s easy to “just do it”–to just go thru the motions.
If nothing makes you mindful of wonder and awe, you’re too confident that you have life figured out. (You don’t.) When your mind wanders away from analysis, perhaps it’s searching for the wonder of mindfulness. A ponderful life overflows with wonder, amazement, and delight.
What’s easily written off as a coincidence, when pondered, may be a miracle. Before reacting to a situation, pause and ponder. A little insight might make it right.
Observe your thoughts and emotions, like gazing at a painting in an art show. You’ll learn a lot. Tormenting thoughts don’t wait to be pondered. They harass from the get-go. Tormenting thoughts rattle along always trying to interrupt and unnerve people. Peaceful, pensive thoughts wait to be welcomed.
Negative thoughts and emotions barge in and take over, like weeds. Positive ones have to cultivated and grown like crops. My negative thoughts and feelings are plentiful, but I must be intentionally pensive and attentive to goodness, to find positive ones.
If you’re not happy with your current mood, it isn’t mandatory. You can learn to ponder how to train yourself to make your mood pleasant. Many people lack the boldness to examine their own thoughts and feelings, and instead go thru life being continually bullied by them.
Mental analysis can understand processes; pensive pondering can perceive wonder, awe, and meaning. It can intuitively perceive God’s glory in the astounding designs of nature. When it comes to God, hearing a man’s analysis is inadequate. Let your heart ponder and perceive His mind-boggling presence and power.
I love to go observing and pondering in the woods. I get a special sense of God’s presence when I do. I enjoy being pensive–scanning fields of thoughts within me, searching for hope and wisdom, and then following them into inspiration.
Analyzing God leads to theology; pondering God leads to awe. Prayer is much more than merely making intelligible request to God. It’s to be overawed by glimpses of His majesty and beauty.
If you feel stuck and analytical thinking isn’t helping, perhaps it’s time to be pensive and perceptive to fresh ideas.
To ponder is to think about with wonder and awe, not with just analysis. I love to ponder Jesus.
