The narrator’s voice chimes in and tells me my own story, as it’s playing out, pretty much throughout the entire day. Do you remember the wise old grey-haired man, who read the Winnie the Pooh stories on the Disney channel? He sat in a rocking chair, started each tale with an introduction and would chime in throughout, putting in his British-accented ‘big-picture’ view of what was happening to Pooh and his friends.

He seemed so grown-up and wise, and important to the tale. He could really understand the whole situation better than the characters within the story.

I have a voice like that too. Wise and grown up sounding. It chimes in and ‘explains’ what is happening to me, and to the characters around me, or the world around me, throughout my life, pretty much all day long. This voice sounds apart, adjacent, or ‘behind-the-scenes’ from the kernel of myself. It really does seem like a narrator, enlightening me with the big picture view, of how people, things and even myself are doing in the world.

Yeah, it ‘tells’ me how things are going. It measures things.

Lately, it sounds like this:

• You’re living in a blinding blur of activity, you have almost none of it under control
• He or She, is really out of line here, ‘They’ ‘Should’ be treating you differently
• He or She, isn’t doing things right, ‘They’ ‘Should’ be acting or even thinking differently than ‘They’ are.
• This situation is complete nonsense, aren’t we just disgusted with this whole thing?
• There is so much left undone. You haven’t taken care of so many things. You are behind, you have failed, you continue to fail, even when you know better, you’re not doing better.
• Why can’t you just get disciplined and create what you want your life to look like. You know it’s possible, so why aren’t you doing it??

So on and on and on and on and on, the narrator goes… I hope this is new to you, and that you’ve never heard the narrator’s voice in your head. I really hope you think this whole thing is strange and foreign and un-relatable… Right??

See this narrator isn’t so freaking wise. He isn’t really all that insightful or seasoned or even looking out for your own good. Some would call this voice Ego. Some would call it the voice of Fear. Maybe it’s the Enemy? We’ve also called it the Croc-Brain, in blogs here at weirdforgood. This voice is actually quite harmful throughout my day, and I want to be aware of him, and very aware of how I let his words affect my thoughts and actions… VERY AWARE.

Michael Neil is a wonderful author and coach, and has helped me in my life. Why? Because I chose to believe and experiment with the principals he teaches. Interesting little sentence here. Because I chose to believe it. See Michael has some cool ideas. Like when that narrator voice, throws an idea up onto the picture screen of my mind, I at that point, can choose to believe that thought, or to NOT believe that thought. Just because it’s there, doesn’t make it true. Just because the narrator, says again, the same old line he’s said forever, doesn’t make it anymore true today, than I believe it to be.

So when Ego, or Fear, or Croc tell me something in my mind, I then could say in response. “I don’t have to think that.” (credit to Michael Neil, for these words)

Yeah, You and I and all of us could choose our thoughts, through a quick process of feeling if they feel crappy, then notice that I have a choice. Notice that I have possibility and more options, notice that the exact moment, that I choose to believe the thought thrown out by the unseen narrator, that is the moment where our responsibility begins. That is the moment that we create ourselves the re-action to that thought.

My narrator lately has been negative. My narrator lately is a judger. My narrator, has the ability to change, I would guess. I wonder if i quit listening to him, and chose a slightly better though for myself, if he’ll be inspired to dress up the story, and give myself some more credit, people around me more forgiveness, and see our little hundred-acre-wood, as a place where wonderful things happen all the time, and possibility abounds, instead of struggle and darkness around every tree.

I do have the light of Christ in my life. I do dip into the clear pool of refreshing living water, and experience the guilt and the shame and the fear washing away. These moments are mysterious and wonderful. Yet, there is a lot of life, where I am just a regular person full of junky thoughts and habits. I believe that God is helping me navigate my life, by giving me insights and teachers and messages for these moments. I can employ and practice ang grow, to help myself rise up, and not remain on bottom-level forever.

“I don’t have to think that.” is a powerful message. A powerful tool. Play with it. Use it. Employ words that can tow you out of a stuck-in-a-mudhole moment. It’s kinda fun. It may freak you out at first. But consider what could happen, if you could tell that old cranky narrator, to shut his trap, and you are going to choose what you’d like to think about the current moment. That will shape how you act, and how others react to you too.

There are tragedies in the news. A man killed a boy in some kind of fight. It sucks for everyone. No one wins. Can you see the moments, where both of them believed their thoughts? Can you see the places where their thoughts led to fatal actions? Can you see where the phrase “I don’t have to think that,” could have even saved a life?

In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.

King James Bible “Authorized Version”, Cambridge Edition

Words our powerful things. Words in our minds are powerful. In our mouths too. The origin of the narrator, I can’t tell you. The words I use to interact with him are mine. If he tells me something positive, I could choose to agree. If it isn’t, I can say thank you, but I don’t want to think that right now, it isn’t helpful to me, it doesn’t make life better. Thanks but no thanks. You can keep telling me this stuff, and I will keep discarding it.

I am the writer, not the character who has to react to every little thing around me. God has created the book, guides the story, has built-in opportunity everywhere. Will I take today, and write something I’m proud of? Or will I let the narrator again tell my little same-ol story as usual, keeping me penned up and afraid and disgruntled and small.

I doubt that God is fond of this narrator voice. His Word, enriches my life, always. Not the judging narrator’s. You must choose, but choose wisely.

Sincerely,

Aaron Nichols