Thinking in Circles

“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” — Proverbs 3:5 (KJV)

Chesterton starts with a surprising idea. Most people think that too much imagination can make you lose touch with reality. Chesterton says the opposite. It is not imagination that traps people, but a certain kind of over-thinking.

“The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits.”

He uses old-fashioned words about madness that we wouldn’t use today, and he isn’t mocking anyone with a mental illness. His point is about a kind of thinking that gets stuck in a small, tight circle. He puts it like this: such a person has not lost their reason; they have “lost everything except his reason.”

Think of someone convinced that everyone is plotting against them. Whatever you say, they have an answer. If you say people aren’t plotting, they say, “That’s exactly what plotters would say.” Their logic is complete, but their world has become very small.

We all do a mild version of this sometimes. You decide that a friend hates you, and then every message, every look, every silence “proves” it. Your logic is airtight, but you have left out half of reality, like the fact that your friend might just be busy.

What is the cure? Chesterton says it isn’t more argument. It is letting in a bigger world: humour, love, ordinary experience, and mystery. He says:

“As long as you have mystery you have health; when you destroy mystery you create morbidity.”

The healthy person, he says, “has always had one foot in earth and the other in fairyland.” They can live with things they can’t fully explain. They care “more for truth than for consistency”.

Christianity, Chesterton thought, gives us exactly this: solid truth to stand on, and a mystery big enough to breathe in. You don’t have to understand everything about God to trust him.

If your thoughts often go round and round in circles, especially dark or anxious ones, that is worth taking seriously. Talk to someone you trust, like a parent, a youth leader, a school counsellor or a doctor. You don’t have to think your way out alone.

One thing to do this week: next time you notice your mind going round in circles about something, stop and do something “bigger” instead: go outside, talk to a friend, laugh at something, or pray Proverbs 3:5. Notice whether your thoughts loosen.