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| “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” |
| —Isaiah 55:8-9 |
Imagine for just a moment that we would stop to compare how we humans think with how God thinks. In my last blog post, I wrote about how incomprehensible God really is. If we humans think very differently from each other, is it such a surprise that God’s way of thinking is also very different from our own?
In speaking to the people of Judah, the Prophet Isaiah reports this conversation with God, as recorded in Isaiah 55:8-9:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
There is great comfort in knowing that things we may find confusing are not at all confusing to God. Things that give us anxiety or fear do not provoke those emotions in God. Why? Because His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways.
Throughout this new day, we have every reason to take comfort from the fact that God is high above us in every way, including His thinking and His acting. He thinks very differently than we do. The very fact that this is the God who loves us should give us great peace, as we move through this day.
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1 Here’s some background information about understanding how people think differently.
Almost twenty-five years ago, I made a startling discovery. At the time I was the Director of Loss Prevention Training for a large Highly Protected Risk (HPR) property insurance company. I was responsible for a team of instructors and support personnel, who conducted the training and certification of newly hired fire protection engineers. We were very fortunate to have at our disposal the largest fire protection training laboratory in the world. It was an amazing time in my professional life.
Working as a team, we changed a traditional “learn-the-facts” based training program into a full-fledged certification program that confirmed the competency of the engineers in a long list of necessary skills. We expanded the program to include some courses on how to understand and get along with people. Since the engineers would be dealing with a wide range of different individuals during the course of their daily work, this seemed like a very good idea. And, it proved to be true.
Through my contacts in the Evangelical Christian world, my wife and I had met a truly gifted individual, Kathy Koch, Ph.D. When we first met her at a Christian Educators Association International annual meeting, she was a tenured professor at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. But, not long after we met her, she responded to the call of God, left her secure academic career, moved to Ft. Worth, Texas, and founded a ministry to parents, teachers, and children called “Celebrate Kids.” (Those of you who may be Facebook friends will note that from time to time I share videos or other information from Dr. Kathy here on Facebook.)
Knowing of my background in Psychology, one day Dr. Kathy contacted me to share an exciting new instrument she had discovered for understanding “self” and “others.” Called the Gregorc Style Delineator™, and based on the work of Anthony F. Gregorc, Ph.D., this instrument helps determine an individual’s Mind Style™.
Soon, Dr. Kathy and Helen “Chip” Griepsma, the Training Director from BCM International (formerly Bible Club Movement), came to our home in Windsor, Connecticut, so that all three of us could attend one of Dr. Gregorc’s seminars on the understanding and use of his instrument. The seminar was held at a hotel near the Hartford-Springfield International Airport. There, we met Dr. Gregorc and his lovely wife, Diane. It was the beginning of a long and close personal friendship that continues to this day. And, it was a complete game changer for me, and for the others.
I had been familiar with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® and had used it in previous training classes. But, Dr. Gregorc’s instrument was so much easier to use and understand. And, it gave such amazingly helpful results that student after student reported having a significant change in perspective.
The principal thing I learned in very understandable terms was how very differently people take in information and then process and order that information out. Since I had always had more than a little difficulty with interpersonal relationships, this new understanding was extremely helpful to me. Much of the time that we have difficulty getting along with someone it’s because we think differently.
