It was the start of my eighth grade basketball season and I had been practicing very well. A week or so before our first game the head coach informed me that I was trending towards being the new starting point guard. He began rotating me in with the starting team. And as he did I played absolutely terrible. Turnover after turnover. Bad shot after bad shot. I was playing like a third-stringer. The conversations about me starting ended.
What happened? A major part of the issue was that once the coach told me that I might be starting I made one of the biggest mistakes an athlete can make—I got stuck in my own head. I thought about passes instead of passing. I was crippled by introspection.
Fast forward a couple decades (wow, really? 20 years ago?) and I have some of those same tendencies. Now, though, it doesn’t impact my ability to play basketball. Now the stakes are much higher. My habit of morbid introspection has a tendency to negatively impact my relationships. At times it even cripples my ability to lead.
This is why when I saw a New Growth Press ad for Think Again I immediately requested a review. I’ve known for quite sometime that this is a problem area in my life. I figured this book might be helpful. Though I must confess I wondered how a book—which tends to make me introspective—would guide me out of introspection.
The author, Jared Mellinger, does a fine job of pointing to Christ throughout the book. In fact the whole of the book can be summed up in one simple statement: “The more we are captivated by Christ, the less we are caught up in self” (10). Several chapters are spent on defending that thesis and showing the danger of introspection.
I’m happy that Mellinger did not throw out introspection altogether. While some of the books from the Reformed side of things can tend to exalt the life of the mind in such a way that feeds morbid introspection, there are also numerous books which ignore the importance of loving God with our minds. Some perspectives would have us never analyze ourselves. I believe Mellinger strikes a helpful balance. He devotes an entire chapter to the benefits of healthy introspection. He also does us a service by showing the ways in which we can cross the line from healthy to unhealthy introspection.
The reader will not only learn how to engage in healthy self-evaluation but is also given tools to parse the difference between real and false guilt. We often run from healthy introspection because we are not secure enough in the gospel. Or we engage in unhealthy introspection because we have eyes fixated on our performance instead of the finished work of Christ. Dealing with actual guilt and dismissing false guilt helps us engage in healthy introspection. We examine ourselves so that we can see Christ in us as well as reflect upon His provision for our failings.
I finished the book a couple of months ago, but held off on a review because I wanted to see how everything I had read would actually impact me. Would I see a new way of thinking? Would my introspective tendencies get healthier?
The only problem with my strategy of waiting is that you cannot just read a book and expect to change. You have to actually apply the tips therein. And really this isn’t a book filled with trips and tricks. It is more a book of an overall philosophy of thinking about introspection. One could say it is a theology of introspection. As such it is a helpful addition to your library and would be a great help to anyone who has gotten introspection all wrong.
It’s not incredibly fair to fault a book for a chapter it did not include, so I want to offer this critique with caution. I might be asking for a talisman instead of a realistic thing that a book could offer. Having said that, I do believe a chapter for those in the thick of darkness and depression might have been helpful. I would have liked something memorable to help me whenever I find myself trapped in my own mind. How do I get out?
But then again, I think there are answers to those questions smattered throughout the book. There is enough here for me to chew on and apply to my daily life. The overall point that looking to Christ instead of self is the answer to introspection is helpful. And it is written in a very helpful and practical way. I do not want to give the impression that this book is merely theoretical or chock-full of theological musings but no practical guidance. I think the book would be very helpful to anyone struggling with morbid introspection.
The answer to my battle with morbid-introspection is found in Christ. That much I learned from Mellinger. It isn’t found in reading a book on introspection. But this book is a great tool in pointing to Jesus and retraining the mind to think outside of ourselves. I would heartily recommend it for anyone.
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You can purchase it here.
