I have some worship songs constantly going round my mind. One in particular that has been helpful for me is “Jesus Iye” by Nathaniel Bassey. I have been singing the chorus during setup on Sunday mornings, so much so that one of the team said it was an ear worm. It worms its way in and stays! That’s a positive example of an ear worm. But there are many ear worms that are in our minds that are not helpful. These are patterns of thinking that stop us flourishing as Christians in the totality of life.

Romans 12:2 tells us “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

So a vital part of our human flourishing and winning the battle for our mental health is getting rid of wrong beliefs or pesky ear worms and replacing them with right thinking. We need transform our minds, by renewing them.

Many years ago, I did some pastoral training where this was expressed as “tapes” that we play. These tapes are self talk – unhelpful wrong thinking that we play over and over again to our detriment. I was recently talking to someone about some of their wrong thinking and had to ask if they even knew what a tape was! Hence I’m using “ear worm” now!

Proverbs 23:7 (KJV) tells us  “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he”, so it is vital we get rid of wrong thinking and replace it with God’s thoughts.

Dallas Willard wrote in the Renovation of the heart that “Individuals who suffer from a poor image of themselves are caught up in self-rejection and have no defences against group presstres. They do not see themselves as the objects of God’s love, and they have no place to stand. Henri Nouwen notes “Success, popularity and power can indeed present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from the way they are a part of a much larger temptation of self-rejection. We have come to believe in the voices that call us worthless and unlovable, then succes, popularity and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions to our desolate condition”

These bad ear worms can come from a number of sources…

• Statements made by others to us – by for example parents, teachers
• Assumptions made by us
• Comparisons we make with others
• Impressions given to us by others
• Evaluations made by us that aren’t always correct ( for instance a bumble bee shouldn’t be able to fly!)

When we have negative ear-worms of bad thinking it will colour our reactions to situations in ways that are so unhelpful. Here are some examples

1. All-or-Nothing Thinking: Alan receives feedback on his presentation at work. Despite receiving mostly positive comments, he fixates on the one minor criticism. Therefore he concludes that the entire presentation was a failure, ignoring the aspects that were praised.
2. Catastrophizing: Before an important exam, Callum imagines the worst possible outcome: failing it, being expelled from school, and never finding a job. These catastrophic thoughts create unnecessary stress and anxiety.
3. When I slipped a disk really badly and was unable to walk normally for six months, about half way through I was introduced to the term “Catastophising” by my physio when I experienced a setback and thought the worst.
4. Fortune Telling: Sally is invited to a social event but declines because she predicts that she won’t enjoy herself. She convinces herself that everyone will ignore her and that she’ll feel out of place, even though she hasn’t given it a chance.
5. Labeling: After making a mistake at work, Andrea tells herself, “I’m such a failure.” She defines her entire identity based on one error, ignoring her successes and positive qualities.
6. Filtering: Despite receiving numerous compliments on her musical performance, Katie fixates on one negative comment. She dismisses all the positive feedback and convinces herself that she’s a terrible musician.

The Bible teaches us to renew our minds by replacing the negative thinking with biblical thinking – I love how Eugene Peterson put it in the Message paraphrase of Phil 4:8-9

Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the 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.

Here are some typical negative ear-worms

1. “I’m such a failure; I always mess things up.”
2. “Nobody likes me; I’m unlikeable and unworthy of friendships.”
3. “I’m not smart enough to handle this; I’ll never understand it.”
4. “I’m so ugly; no one will ever find me attractive.”
5. “I’ll never be good at anything; I have no talents or skills.”
6. “I don’t deserve to be happy; I’m not worthy of love or success.”
7. “I’ll never be as successful as others; I’m just a loser.”
8. “I’m so awkward and boring; people must find me annoying to be around.”
9. “I can’t trust myself to make the right decisions; I always make mistakes.”
10. “I’ll never be able to overcome my problems; my life is just hopeless.”
11. “I’m a burden to others; they would be better off without me.”
12. “I don’t have what it takes to achieve my goals; I should just give up.”
13. “I’m too fat/skinny; I’ll never have the body I want.”
14. “I’m a fraud; everyone will eventually discover I’m not as capable as they think.”
15. “I always sabotage myself; success is just not meant for me.”

The key for all of these and other negative self talk, or bad ear-worms is to find Scriptures that tell us the right Biblical thinking – learn them and quote them to yourself as you need to!

Dallas Willard again “The most obvious thing we can do is to draw certain key portions of Scripture into our minds and make them a part of the permanent fixtures of our thought. This is the primary discipline for the thought lufe. We need to know them like the back of our hand, and a good way to do that is to memorise them and constantly turn them over in our minds as we go through teh events and cuircumstances of our life… As you choose to give your time and energy to and plan your life around, the renovation of your mind, it will happen.“

He goes onto suggest we need to ingest passages not just verses, such as Romans 5:1-8, 8:1-15, 1 Cor 13 or Col 3:1-17 – to fill our minds with the light of God. Last Sunday some of children recited passages they learn – may that be a provocation to learn some of the passages above!

I have also produced an “In Christ” sheet with lots of verses to help you create positive ear-worms of who you are in Christ. Click it to download the PDF.

Let’s work on Biblical ear-worms to replace stinking thinking!