There is something called Closed Loop Thinking. It is a mental process we go through that requires closure. A closed loop is created by the assumption that we have a complete understanding of a concept or a reality. We use the information available at the moment to close the open ends of the loop regarding an issue and move on with life thinking we have it all figured out.
Closed Loop Thinking is what fuels storytelling. An open loop is a cliffhanger for a TV series or a novel using it as bait to get us to tune in next week or read the next page. Our reality is formed by assembling closed loops of reasoning where we have determined something to be true. Assumption is the operative word. It is what creates Closed Loop Thinking.
When a loop of thinking is closed and is either unhealthy or uninformed, that loop needs to open to receive an intervening truth or a new set of facts. This is where unfamiliar information that exists outside a closed loop or a word of prophecy will open the closed loop of our thinking to let us know something else beyond our enclosed loop of thinking is taking place.
Each generation lives within the assumptions of their closed loops. At one time we thought the world was flat and that germs or gravity did not exist. Those who challenged the ignorance of those closed loops of thinking were mocked and ostracized. Some lost their lives as a result. The same holds true regarding our faith and how it functions in society. When we realize we are being groomed to accept closed-loop thinking by unredeemed social architects or when we are being persuaded to abandon long-held biblical truth by theological wolves in sheep’s clothing, our loop opens.
If we place God’s unchanging nature at the core of our thinking and allow the Spirit to access our minds, we will never allow our thinking to remain closed. We will stay open to a fresh revelation that will reveal something new God is making known or doing, something only the open loop of a renewed mind can realize and entertain as a possibility.
Everything outside God’s nature and the truth expressed in His word is subject to change. We advance in our faith by allowing God to open up the closed loops of thinking about spiritual realities. Only God is unchanging. Everything else is subject to change.
“For I, the Lord do not change” (Malachi 3:6).
Lord,you keep in perfect peace the one whose imagination is fixed upon you – that one trusts in You!
Is 26.2-3
Yesterday I saw a picture of a perfect circle but the ends were not touching. I had the thought “things are coming full circle” but it did not fit with what my intercession was at the moment. This word is so clear and gives new meaning to the picture –the perfect circle — but the ends are not touching!
I find it scary to keep an open mind particularly regarding things of the spirit. It’s more ‘secure’ and comfortable to stay with thinking/beliefs with which I’ve grown up and believed all my life. Today there are so many’ wolves’ peddling reinterpretation of the scriptures that I see as changing my perception of biblical truth that I set my mind against them. It’s sometimes difficult to know if it’s true. So I guess I am typical if one having ‘closed’ loop thinking.