Thinking About It

We can either be told what to think or we can think.

          Can’t really be both ways.

          We live in a time when waiting, considering, imagining, exploring and weighing are all being set aside for having and having now. Just think about the word “ponder.” The words in my last sentence – wait, consider, imagine, explore, weigh – they’re all in that word “ponder.” When we ponder, we allow ourselves the time to dig deeply into something.

          It is an old word, rarely used, but it is such a good concept for getting the most out of life. But why ponder when we have “truth” so accessible?

          I was just hearing about a professor who has spent his life exploring the impact of walking with trees. Trees, he discovered, emit more than oxygen – necessary for our lives, but also phytoncides. Isn’t that a great word. Phytoncides are the primary tree-emitted compounds that reduce stress, lower cortisol, improve mood, and support immune function. This is why a walk in the woods, as opposed to a walk through the city, has a different impact on us.

Flourishing

          Trees impress a different view of life through our senses. Visually, fractal patterns in branches that reduce neural effort and stress. Auditorily, the sound of wind or soft rustling lowers sympathetic nervous system activation. The usual climate of cooler air and lower humidity supports relaxation. And the scent directly influences the limbic system.

          This professor pondered trees and through that patient consideration and exploration he learned all this. Pondering teaches us to look closely, to let reality reveal itself as it is. And when we don’t do that, something else happens.

          I was just told, on a friend’s post, that we should shut down the National Academy of Science because it was politically biased.

That’s a big claim. A loud claim. And it’s the kind of claim that thrives when pondering is absent.

The truth is quieter. The climate chapter wasn’t removed by the National Academy at all — it was removed by the Federal Judicial Center after political pressure. The Academy didn’t agree with the removal. They simply paused to review their own process, and they said plainly that the review wasn’t about the science.

But in a world that rewards speed over depth, someone hears “chapter removed” and “criticism” and leaps straight to “shut it all down.”

That’s what happens when we stop pondering. We stop noticing. We stop weighing. We stop exploring. We stop imagining that there might be more to the story than the first headline or the loudest voice.

Pondering is slow. But truth often lives in the slow places.

Wherever you land on the political landscape just now, I encourage you to take the time to do a bit of pondering before you react.

In Psalm 1 we read:

Blessed is the one    who does not walk in step with the wicked

or stand in the way that sinners take

    or sit in the company of mockers,  

but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,

and who meditates on his law day and night.

If we were to put this into the meaning of the Hebrew words, it might come out as…

Flourishing is the person

Who doesn’t pay attention to the counsel of those without integrity

or who have no substance.

Or walk along with those who habitually miss the mark

Or hang out with those who dismiss wisdom and joke about what’s true

Instead, this one’s joy is in God’s instructions

And over that guidance they ponder

Day into day and night into night

There are many voices today urging people to react quickly, to adopt instant outrage, to skip the slow work of discernment. Psalm 1 invites us to be different kinds of people. When we take the time, we’re promised in the psalm that we will become like

“a tree planted by streams of water,

    which yields its fruit in season

and whose leaf does not wither”

We’re promised here that we will flourish in whatever we do, and that is a promise worth pondering.