There was a time when you walked into your local or campus library and you would notice a placard hanging on the bookshelf that simply stated one word: "Think". I don't see those signs around any longer, perhaps they are around, but I suspect they are in libraries that are seldom utilized in distant outposts that haven't been updated to today's misguided world. I miss that sign greatly, because the sentiment is so profound, so powerful, and so meaningful. Instead, at my local library, there are now placards of celebrities encouraging one to read. Celebrities? Reading? That just seems like the wrong way to get across the message that reading and knowledge is vital for society.
The problem is our government no longer wants us to think for ourselves, instead it would much rather have us subservient and to "obey". That is the fundamental difference between a true democracy which encourages the free exercise of speech and all that entails, as opposed to a government that just wants everyone to shut up, adhering to and following the company line, and most of all to be obedient. Thinking is inconvenient for governments, as it adds an inherent "wild card", whereas governments are essentially about control and stability to their rules.
God has gifted us with the ability to think, this ability should be developed and exercised, and if it is not, it becomes relatively atrophied. Some of us live lives in which we try to escape from actively thinking, but that isn't the way a life is suppose to be lived. Thinking involves choice, examination, contemplation, effort, and experience, and it is by the virtue of thinking that we are enabled to see possibilities and to come up with solutions to various vexing problems or challenges.
To think is the pathway to knowing God, and subsequently to understanding the meaning of life. "In the beginning was the Word…" (John 1:1), in which God spoke or thought his consciousness into existence into our planet and ultimately to our humanity itself. It is through thinking that we are able to know ourselves, to learn, to develop, and to grow.
Thinking comes in all sorts of varieties and flavors, from the concentrated studying on a particular subject or phenomena, to the listening and absorbing of wisdom from others, to hard work and dedicated effort, and to the quiet and still contemplation of He who is the master of all knowledge and truth. By our thoughts and by our actions, we will be known to others in this world. It is through our thoughts that we process information and it is this comprehension that we pass onto others as well as to ourselves.
Thinking is our way to touch the very Hand of God, as we are in a certain sense lesser gods, but capable of tapping into and become one with God. Our thoughts are our creations, creations that can be used for either good or for evil. Inside our mind, and through are actions, are written who we are through the skeins of time. Our thoughts are us, uniquely us; you should examine them, appreciate them, contemplate them, and utilize them for your own betterment and for the betterment of mankind itself.