The Star Wars franchise is guilty of overselling the wisdom and strength we can find from within, but they also recognize how much our thoughts and desires can cloud our judgment, confuse us, or conflict within us. This is the experience of Anakin Skywalker, or Darth Vader, from beginning to end. He’s a conflicted character. He trusts himself too much but experiences inner turmoil and conflict because of it. Throughout the film are scattered remarks that highlight the instability of the human heart.
In Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones, Obi Wan Kenobi tells his apprentice, “Be mindful of your thoughts Anakin, they betray you.” Then in Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith, as the evil Chancellor Palpatine invites Anakin into his presence, Obi Wan again counsels Anakin to be “wary of his feelings.” Master Kenobi recognized that if Anakin didn’t check his thoughts and feelings with truth he was in trouble. The Sith Lord (Palpatine) plays on Anakin’s feelings—of hurt from the Jedi council and love for Padme—as he leads him down a trail of thoughts and lies toward the dark side. Palpatine even uses the same language as Obi Wan, telling Anakin to search his feelings (but by this point Anakin’s thoughts and feelings are clearly perplexed and confused).
Then in the climactic Star Wars: Episode VI—Return of the Jedi, as Darth Vader tries to convert his son, Luke Skywalker, to the dark side, and as Luke tries to bring his father out of the dark side, both men speak to one another about the complexity and confusion taking place within them. Before meeting Emperor Palpatine, Luke tells Darth Vader that he can feel the conflict within his father. Luke repeats these words only a few minutes later as the two duel with their light sabers in front of Palpatine. Each of the following scenes with Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader capitalize on this inner conflict and tension for both men that leaves their paths and future unclear.
Then as Emperor Palpatine tries to trick and trap the younger Skywalker, Luke doesn’t know what to do in this moment because too many thoughts, feelings, options, and outcomes keep flooding through his heart and mind. Darth Vader feels the conflict in his son. He flips Luke’s words back on him, twice telling him that his betray him as Vader tries to coax Luke to join him. As Luke resists trusting what he wants to do in the moment, he feels a similar struggle within Vader. Luke tells his father that his thoughts betray him as well. Luke senses some light of love and a flicker of awareness of the truth in his masked father. He again tries to assure Vader that he can return to the light as he says, “Your thoughts betray you, father. I feel the good in you, the conflict.”
Active Rather than Passive
It’s clear that both Luke and Vader experience inner conflict, and the existence of that turmoil and confusion should convince us that our thoughts and feelings aren’t a reliable compass to follow. Our minds and hearts are too easily manipulated by others and too quick to waffle back-and-forth about what we should do.
Your mind isn’t meant to be a lazy river where you sit back and relax but a sailboat where you’re constantly at work to let the wind push in the right direction rather than get off course. You must renew your thinking by letting Scripture reorient your thinking.
This is different from simply “self-talk” or “positive thinking.” I’m not simply suggesting replacing a negative thought with a positive one, but I’m suggesting we replace unbiblical thoughts with truthful ones rooted in God’s Word. I’m talking about letting God’s true and faithful Word be the objective and authoritative voice in our lives rather than anything in me or the voices around me. Martyn Lloyd-Jones writes:
“The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul: “Why art thou cast down”–what business have you to be disquieted? You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself: “Hope thou in God”–instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way. And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do. Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: “I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God.”[1]
The Christian life isn’t just about thinking and doing, but it’s also about reflecting on our thinking and then renewing our thinking with Scripture (Rom. 12:2). In stress, anxiety, discouragement, or worry, consider whether your thoughts and beliefs line up with God’s Word.
Instead of listening to ourselves and fueling our thoughts of unbelief we should speak truth to ourselves and feed our faith in God. Stop giving the doubts, whispers, hypotheticals, and lies the microphone and start preaching to yourself.
David’s Example
David offers us an example of how our own thoughts, or heart, can lead us astray. While in 1 Samuel 26, David confidently believed God would deliver him from the hand of Saul, in the time gap between 1 Samuel 26 and 1 Samuel 27 something changed. “Then David said in his heart, ‘Now I shall perish one day by the hand of Saul’” (1 Samuel 27:1). David had shifted from trusting in what God had said (David would be king) to trusting in what his heart told him (that Saul would kill him).
Because David listens to his heart rather than speaks truth to his heart, he stops living by faith in God and is now driven by fear of Saul. David doesn’t pause to seek God or pray to God, but he lets his gut tell him what he should do. It will be a few chapters before David then hits rock bottom, and out of deep distress, he turns back to God and finds his strength in God (1 Samuel 30:6). We immediately see a change in David as then does pray to God, is led by God, obeys God, and reflects God in the rest of 1 Samuel 30.
In both Psalm 31 and 138, David talks about finding his strength in God in dark and discouraging days. When you read these two psalms, which are honest about the hardship he’s enduring, what stands out is how much David rehearses the attributes, faithful acts, character, and promises of God. David recenters his mind and heart on who God is and what God has done and will do, and this renews his thinking and refreshes his strength. David begins to sing to God, give thanks to God, and trust in and wait on God, and it all happens as he stops listening to his own thoughts and feelings, and instead, he lets the truth of Scripture speak into his thoughts and feelings.
When his eyes looked inward, David’s faintheartedness, fear, and foolishness got him off track. But when his eyes turned upward, he found renewed strength, wisdom, and encouragement in God.
The same is true for us today. While the world around us tells us to listen to our heart, we should be people who are skeptical about our heart because we know how easily deceived and discouraged it can be. Instead, we should let Scripture speak to our heart, correcting, encouraging, and reorienting our thoughts and feelings around what God has said is true rather than what we feel is true.
For more on the practical sides of how to renew your mind, see the following posts:
“Renew Your Mind with Gospel-Centered Reflection“
“Renew Your Mind in Community“
ENDNOTES
[1] D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cures. Justin Taylor quoting Martyn Lloyd Jones https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/talk-dont-listen-to-yourself/
indycrowe 