Article December 30, 2013 Issue

Double trouble or single-mindedness?

Cynthia Clague

My grandchildren and I enjoy reading a book called Double Trouble in Walla Walla by Andrew Clements. It uses lots of phrases that play on the sing-songy name of the town of Walla Walla (in the northwestern United States), such as “wishy washy,” “topsy turvy,” and “namby pamby.”

It struck me recently how often human language uses such dual terms to describe double-mindedness. They perfectly account for the erratic indecisiveness mentioned in the Bible’s book of James: “A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.” Also: “He that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord” (James 1:8, 6, 7).

How often we find ourselves wishing for some good outcome, yet despairing of ever attaining it. This is a form of double-mindedness, where one focus cancels out or opposes the other. But if we wish to strengthen our healing efforts, a good long look at what we focus on, and how we identify ourselves, makes a key difference.

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