thought life

It has occurred to me in the past that the only thing we actually control is our thoughts.  We have the power to decide what we will think about and the choices are far-flung.  There is no law, form of government, or external force that can know or control our thoughts.  This led me to consider how much of our identity is wrapped up in our thought life.  Our brain is a highly organized tangle of nerves, described as circuits that fire like spark plugs and that interconnect to house memories, opinions and habits.  Somehow I have a hard time believing that my identity is the sum of these electrochemical activities within my skull.  The experience of living seems so seamless...thoughts, decisions, opinions, heart-felt emotion, spiritual convictions are complex in nature and yet develop and flow with order and peace.  And then there is the quality of our lives that is eternal and goes beyond life in this body.  We have the confidence that we will know who we are even after we depart this fleshly vessel.  That suggests to me that the essence of who we are, even here, cannot be isolated to the work of neurons and purely physical phenomena.  I believe that we are more essentially spiritual beings, even here, than physical ones and that, one day, in eternity we will realize that the mind, like the body, was primarily a tool to help us function during our physical lives.  I apologize for the "heaviness" of this thought today, but I am excited about giving a larger weight to living spiritually even while still breathing the air of planet Earth.   Genesis 1:27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.   blessings, Rob Smith