Stumbled upon a cool quote the other day. Some fellow called Dawson Trotman. Apparently he founded the navigators. Bully. The quote is “Thoughts disentangle themselves when they pass through the lips and the fingertips.”
I really liked it because I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the relationship between our actions and our beliefs. The fact that our actions are shaped by our beliefs is sort of worn out and tired from its being much repeated, but what about the fact that our thoughts are shaped by our actions. I think it was Chesterton who observed that obedience is the opener of eyes. A clever friend of mine Jerry Root, observed that the converse is also true. Disobedience is the closer of eyes.
This is the wisdom of the 1st epistle of John where the Evangelist uses the phrase “walking in darkness” to refer to a pattern of sinning. He makes clear that darkness isn’t just a metaphor of evil, but also a metaphor of confusion and blindness in chapter two where he says that the one who walks in darkness doesn’t know where he is going and is blinded by the darkness.
We must not think that we can continue in sin and know God.
