Thinking is Attractive

Be honest. When you're asked to picture someone who is a deep thinker, you think of this guy:

Or perhaps these guys:

Or better yet, when you're asked to think of someone intelligent, you think of this guy:

Or this guy:

Or possibly even this guy:

You definitely never think of this guy:

I'm going to say something that might shock you: Thinking is attractive.


That's right. Attractive. Thinking is hot. When someone can put together a cohesive argument and present it, whether verbally or in writing, in a compelling way, that person garners a following. People follow thinkers because thinkers are attractive. They inspire people. They enlighten people.

Thinkers have ideas, which are simply dreams brought out of one's mind and placed into reality for the world to see. In dreams, what is attractive is determined by the dreamer. Therefore, anyone can be beautiful. Bring that idea into reality, and societal norms melt under the heat of the beauty of an idea brought forth by a thinker.

Thinkers can take an idea and see it through to its completion. No fragmentation, just a progression of propositions placed delicately (sometimes forcefully) together in an array of words evoking images of what is or what could be. Poets are thinkers. Philosophers are thinkers. Theologians are thinkers. And they are attractive people.

Thinking is not cold intellectualism. That has been rightly dismissed in both society at large as well as in our churches as unimpressive,. Real thinking, though, is nothing of the sort. To think deeply and well is to awaken the emotions and elicit a response from the thinker and anyone who happens to be nearby when the thinker's thoughts pour forth from his mind. Intellectualism is arrogant because it focuses on what has been accomplished through measurable effort. Good thinking is humble because its results are immeasurably vast and inescapably not of one's own making.

There was a time, really up until the mid-20th century, when deep thought was expected. We have unfortunately moved in a more pragmatic direction since then, and good thinking has suffered. We now have a world filled with base television, romance novels, self-help books, celebrities who have literally done nothing but show up at a LOT of parties, and magazines that promote each of these with gusto. That's attractive?

Instead of this, shut off Facebook, the computer, the television, your cell phone, and read something intellectually stimulating for 20 focused, uninterrupted minutes. I bet you walk away with something worth keeping. And I bet you'll feel better about having done so. And I bet that feeling better makes you smile. And smiling is always attractive.