"One Human Thought"

God’s Thoughts (Of You!)

Before we talk about the nature and worth of one human thought, I would like to speak for a little bit about the thoughts of God. As we will see, this is a pretty difficult thing to do. Who can possibly pretend to know the mind of God? However, God is placing an invitation into our hands at this very moment through our considerations. He is inviting us to think with his own mind.

The Lord is inviting each of us to consider his thoughts and his ways. But why? Because we think too little of God and what is more, we think wrongly of him. We second guess God, we doubt him, and are afraid of his judgments. Really, we hold him in very low esteem. Our estimates of his love for us fall very short of the reality. It is sinful to doubt God’s love for us, plain and simple. So, from Isaiah we hear:

“…let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Is 55:7-9)

The text is pretty clear. It is impossible for the human person to penetrate the mind of God. One of God’s thoughts far surpasses any one of our own thoughts or all of our thinking as a whole. His ways are far beyond our own. We are earthly and God is heavenly, his ways and thinking supernatural and divine and ours natural and human. Clearly, we need to learn to think of God differently. But first we must just think of him and his love for us.

The Rule of St. Albert, the guiding document for Carmelite Life tells the religious of Carmel to guard the heart with a holy thought. We will set our minds now on one consideration only – a thought which we may find unbelievable but quite true. What is that thought? Well: “God loves you!” This is not just positive thinking. Nor is prayer simply the power of looking at the brighter side of things. [1] Prayer and meditation, if it is to be real, must be based in the truth – that is in reality. We have to see things (i.e. understand with the intellect) things as they are. As it is, God is thinking of you at this very moment. In so doing, he has willed you into existence by his eternal thoughts of you. He did not happen to think of you by chance. You are not a mistake; rather you are an unrepeatable work of his loving wisdom.

God is Looking (at You!) | Another Thought…

John of the Cross speaking of God’s glance explains: “for God to look is for him to love.” (Spiritual Canticle, St. 32, 3). As we consider God’s thoughts, we must also take time to think about this one fact: God is looking at you right now. Let him behold you, let him love you! Is it hard for you to remain under his loving gaze? We are trying to find out what is behind those eyes which are beholding us at this very moment. We want to know God’s thoughts.

Do you feel like he is looking right through you? Afterall, God has the power to look into the human heart. He does not just see the appearance of things (cf. 1 S 16:7). We can ask of God as he looks: “Do you have eyes of flesh? Do you see as man sees?” (Jb 10:4). God’s eyes are not the eyes of another man or woman and his look is not merely human. The Lord sees in a divine manner, that is, he sees as God. He looks upon us always… from our birth and even from our first moments in the womb. We cannot hide from him. There is no place too dark for him or too distant. With the psalmist we declare:

“O Lord, you have searched me and known me! ...Your eyes beheld my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!” (Ps 139:1, 16-17).

We ask God to search and know our hearts to try and test our thoughts. Knowing his thoughts, how can we not think of him continually?

Human Thought

(What are You Thinking About?)

The Human Person

The Human person is defined as: “an individual substance of a rational nature” (Boethius). This means that thinking is essential to being human. It is at the essence of who we are as individual persons before God and other persons, both angelic and human. We are created in the image and likeness of God. The interior world of thought points to this very fact and it separates us from the rest of earthly creation. To understand ourselves more completely, we need to look into our thoughts.

Human Thought | A Definition

Let us begin with a definition or two. “The terms thought and thinking refer to cognitive processes that can happen independently of sensory stimulation.” [2] The most usual forms of thought and thinking are judging, reasoning, concept formation, problem solving, and deliberation. The realm of human thought also encompasses other mental processes like considering an idea, remembering in the memory, or imagining with the imagination. In the widest sense, thought may be understood as any mental event which consists in a form of thinking, including perception and unconscious mental processes. [3] It is important to know what we are thinking and how much we engage in this activity. Knowing these things will help us to perceive how central thinking is to our way of being human.

There is a myth going around the world wide web which claims that the average person has 70,000 thoughts per day. If this is true, and not myth, that means you and I are capable of 3,000 thoughts per hour or 50 per minute – roughly just under one per second. Other popular figures propose: 15k; 60k; 12k to 50k. None of these estimates seem to come with a citation. [4]

According to another source, the average person will have about 6,200 thoughts per day. [5] It is safe to say that counting our thoughts is an inexact science. Even so, just think about your thinking. A few moments will provide you with enough evidence that we are thinking all the time, awake and asleep (if you count dreaming as a mental event, constituting a thought process). Boethius’ definition seems most accurate. The human person is an individual substance of a rational nature. Thinking is essential to our being a man or a woman.

What does this mean? It means that our thoughts are very important. Given that we spend so much lifetime in this activity, it might be worth asking: what are we thinking about? Such a question, and the examination of our thoughts, is not a useless or mindless activity – a waste of time. Philosophy speaks of the importance of such musings. I’ll never forget one of the first lessons I learned in philosophy: “the unexamined life is a life not worth living”, a saying attributed to Socrates and recorded by Plato in his Apology.[6] We are going to take the time now to examine our thoughts and ask what is the true worth of all our thinking?

[Nota Bene: Our main enemy to thoughtfulness or what is more popularly termed mindfulness is scrolling on devices, social media, and other forms of mindless wasting of time.]

The True Worth of Human Thought

St. John of the Cross has much to say about human thought. He highly prizes this activity. In fact, human thought is so precious in his mind, that he explains that it belongs to God alone. This teacher on the mystical life will instruct us to fix our thoughts on God continually. From his Sayings, we hear:

“One human thought alone is worth more than the entire world, hence God alone is worthy of it.”

Sayings of light and Love, #35

In our first saying from St. John of the Cross, we have to remember that we are unique among God’s creatures, in that we are made in his image and likeness. We are images of God’s own Word and Wisdom. Unlike the rest of creation, we have the ability to think and reason. The human person has received this gift so that he or she might always be thinking of God, calling him to mind, and speaking to him. These thoughts are precious to God, so much so, that they mean more to him than all of the beautiful universe put together! Remembering God becomes a precious gift which we can offer Our Father in Heaven every moment of the day.

This is not all. John of the Cross continues to unfold the true worth of human thought in the following:

“The entire world is not worthy of a human being’s thought, for this belongs to God alone;
any thought, therefore, not centered on God is stolen from him.”

Sayings of Light and love, #116

This is a hefty statement: any thought…not centered on God is stolen from Him! Who would want to steal from God? That sounds almost impossible. And yet, this is what is so amazing about human freedom. We can keep from God what is most precious to him. How do we do such a thing? By refusing to acknowledge God as God. Some will even purposely disbelieve in his existence. Others ignore his commands by thinking and doing what they want without any regard to his Law. On a more ordinary basis, there is the refusal to pray or the issue of getting so caught up in activity that we forget God and neglect the practice of his presence. We doubt God or we are afraid of him. We think wrongly of God in difficulties, trials, temptations, and sufferings, blaming God for all the evil that we are faced with in this world.

A little note before moving onto another insight: …the entire world is not worthy of a human being’s thought… We think about all kinds of things pertaining to human life: food, clothing, our possessions, jobs, study, recreations. Well, the list could go on and fill the whole world. Guess what? A lot of this thinking is absolutely useless. All the anxiety and worry are just not worth it!

The Relationship between thought and Love

At the heart of John of the Cross’ Saying, is the association between love and thought. To think of another is to love that person. This is true, as we have already seen above, when God thinks of us. It is also true when we think of him. God loves me when thinking of me, and I love him when I am thinking of him. As he said to some saint somewhere (I think St. Catherine of Siena): “Think of me, and I will think of you!”

Next musing: Recall how many thoughts we have in a day. How many are centered on God? We lack focus. We zero in on the natural and never look to the supernatural in our life. Our minds are too full of distractions, preoccupations, worry, anxiety, and self-concern. If we allow our thoughts to run away from the remembrance of God, we are literally running away with gifts that could be given to him. There is nothing more recollecting than making an act of faith. Taking moments throughout the day to remember God is a wonderful way of making a return to the Creator who has given us everything. In an instant, with one thought, you could give something to God that is worth more to him than the whole world. Think about that for a moment!

Thinking of God (Prayer)

Here are some ways by which we can make thinking of God a habit of life:

Lifting Heart and Mind to God when rising from Sleep. In the morning, when waking after a night of rest, we may offer our first thoughts of the day to God, by lifting up mind and heart to him as we get out of bed. (This practice could include a Daily Offering to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and a Daily Consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary. A perfect example of this kind of prayer is the Breastplate of St. Patrick… “As I Arise Today, etc.”)
Daily Mass. There is no better way to start the day. For those who do not go to daily Mass, I challenge them to try it out. Trust me, you will notice the difference.
Daily Prayer at set times. By this I mean morning and night prayers, the Angelus, the Rosary, devotions, and even the Liturgy of the Hours.
Meditation, especially on the Sacred Scriptures. The daily readings for those who will be going to Mass that day is perfect material for prayerful reading. Lectio Divina is a time-tested form of meditation, which serves as a basis for the gift of contemplation. It is also a great way to learn admiration for God and his works.
Spiritual Reading. Read about the saints and learn from them how to love God. Find good books on the practice of prayer. Works of theology, too, will help us to train our thoughts on God.
Practice of the Presence of God. This is a wonderful practice for busy people. If you get used to this way of prayer, you will find yourself thinking of God in every and any situation… at all times!
Mental Prayer.[7]
Short Prayers. To be used in association with the practice of the presence of God.

This is just a short list of ways in which you might form the habit of thinking of God. Remember, just one thought is enough to give God a gift worth more than the whole world. If you are not at the point of thinking of God continually, start somewhere, and just think of him! He is already thinking of you and will never cease to do so. He loves you! Give God a gift today which is greater than all the world, a gift which is worthy of God alone.

Endnotes

[1] I once had a conversation about prayer with a medical technician at a health clinic. I was recommending it as a remedy when facing the troubles of our times. The tech, quickly taking everything in that I was saying, exclaimed: “There is nothing like the power of positive thinking.” I was surprised and didn’t know what to say. The woman had no concept of the supernatural character of prayer – that when we pray, we are actually talking with God. Prayer is not simply the power of positive thinking! How often did thinking positive thoughts undo the negatives in your life? Prayer is not self-coaching! Prayer is a gift which places us in a loving dialogue with our Creator. He is waiting for you. Go to prayer!

[2] Wikipedia contributors. “Thought.” Wikipedia, 16 Mar. 2025, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought.

[3] Ibid., Thought.

[4] Neuroskeptic. “The 70,000 Thoughts per Day Myth?” Discover Magazine, 19 May 2020, www.discovermagazine.com/mind/the-70-000-thoughts-per-day-myth.

[5] Murdock, Jason. “Humans Have More Than 6,000 Thoughts per Day, Psychologists Discover.” Newsweek, 15 July 2020, www.newsweek.com/humans-6000-thoughts-every-day-1517963. (A statistic published in a paper entitled Nature Communications by a team of psychology experts at Queen’s University in Canada).

[6] Wikipedia contributors. “The Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living.” Wikipedia, 20 Jan. 2025, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The unexamined_life_is_not_worth_living.

[7] St. Therese’s description of her mental prayer as a child: “I think!” [“At this time in my life nobody had ever taught me how to make mental prayer, and yet I had a great desire to make it. Marie, finding me pious enough, allowed me to make only my vocal prayers. One day, one of my teachers at the Abbey asked me what I did on my free afternoons when I was alone. I told her I went behind my bed in an empty space which was there, and that it was easy to close myself in with my bedcurtain and that “I thought.” “But what do you think about?” she asked. “I think about God, about life, about ETERNITY… I think!” The good religious laughed heartily at me, and later on she loved reminding me of the time when I thought, asking me if I was still thinking. I understand now that I was making mental prayer without knowing it and that God was already instructing me in secret.” (Story of a Soul, Ms. A, pgs. 74-5)]

PeterDecember 11, 2025