I’m Thomas!
Epiphany washed over me as I sat at my work desk. Ancient conversations from my youth flooded my brain—parents, coaches, and teachers imploring me to live up to my God-given ability. I thought of my own declarations through the years, “I’m just not good at that,” finally recognizing them for what they were—nothing more than self-imposed restrictor plates. For as long as I could remember, my heart had claimed the lie that you either had natural ability and aptitude for something or you didn’t. I exhaled as I reflected on my life of comfortable mediocrity. Was it too late?
Thomas and the Limitation of Fixed Thinking
My epiphany had been provoked by a Po Bronson article1 that recounted the story of a boy named Thomas (a middle name). Thomas was a fifth grader at a highly competitive school in New York City. “The school is reserved for the top 1 percent of all applicants, and an IQ test is required. Thomas . . . had scored in the top 1 percent of the top 1 percent.”2 In a school of geniuses Thomas and his friends were considered “the smart kids.” Yet despite his natural ability, Thomas had not enjoyed unmitigated success. Although he received almost constant praise regarding his intellect and capability from his parents, teachers, adults, everyone, Thomas’s father noted that the boy consistently retreated from challenges. In fact, Thomas appeared to gravitate only to tasks and activities in which his success appeared to be a foregone conclusion. Why?
Developmental psychologist Carol Dweck helps to provide the answer. In 1998 she performed studies on a group of 400 fifth graders that demonstrated the existence of two mindsets as it related to learning and development: a fixed mindset and a growth mindset.3
Students with growth mindsets tended to enjoy greater success than students with fixed mindsets. Further longitudinal studies showed that development of a growth mindset was more strongly correlated with success than IQ. The fits and starts that Thomas exhibited in his academic career clearly stemmed from a tendency toward fixed thinking.

In many ways Dweck’s discovery is a modernizing of preexisting truth. In the nineteenth century Kate Sanborn stated in a series of lectures on the topic “What Is Genius?” that “talent is perspiration,” explaining that genius required more perspiration than inspiration.4 Examine stories of success, and you will find a similar theme. Success embraces hard work and challenges. Success views setbacks as opportunities for improvement. Success is process-oriented. Success is the result of the perpetual drive to improve. Success is a journey, not a destination.
In 1 Corinthians 9:25-27 Paul seizes on these same themes of temporal success and directs us to the eternal tying concepts of discipline and perseverance to spiritual application and reward.
Scriptural Evidence of the Two Mindsets
Following Paul’s lead, I searched for more evidence of Dweck’s two mindsets in the Bible, and I unearthed a treasure trove of examples, just a few of which I will share here. Lucifer’s fall (Eze. 28:17) clearly outlines fixed thinking as he began to view God’s gifts as intrinsic to himself. Growth mindset is found in James 1:2-4, where we are told to count our trials and persecution as joy because the testing of our faith produces perseverance. Growth emerges again when Jesus promises success to the diligent who knock, seek, and ask (Matt. 7:7, 8). My favorite example of growth mindset is found in the righteous man (Prov. 24:16) who falls repeatedly and completely but rises continually. And finally, Jesus juxtaposes an example of fixed and growth mindset in the parable of the Pharisee and tax collector worshiping in the temple (Luke 18:11-13), pitting the obfuscation and pretense of the Pharisee against the transparency, honesty, and true repentance of the tax collector.
In the many examples I found, it became clear that Satan is the original fixed thinker and that sinful examples tend to be linked with a fixed mindset, while stories of overcoming tend to be connected with a growth mindset.
God’s Gift of Growth
If Satan is the original fixed thinker, God is the source of growth. In the Genesis account we witness one of the most intimate scenes in Scripture as Yahweh crafts Adam with His own hands, then stoops low to the earth and awakens Adam with a life-giving, holy kiss. In this very first moment of face-to-face intimacy with God, Adam is perfect. God could have preprogrammed Adam with everything he needed to know. Yet God does not take this course. He chooses growth, even allowing Adam to grow into an understanding of his need for a helpmate.
The more time we spend turning our thoughts inward, on our own capabilities, on our limitations, on our qualities, and on our attributes, the more we will tend toward fixed thinking.
God takes Adam and Eve’s development so seriously that He appoints Himself as Adam’s lead instructor:
“The holy pair were not only children under the fatherly care of God but students receiving instruction from the all-wise Creator. They were visited by angels, and were granted communion with their Maker, with no obscuring veil between. . . . The mysteries of the visible universe . . . afforded them an exhaustless source of instruction and delight. . . . Their capacity to know, to enjoy, and to love would continually increase. They would be constantly gaining new treasures of knowledge, discovering fresh springs of happiness, and obtaining clearer and yet clearer conceptions of the immeasurable, unfailing love of God.”5
God has planted eternity in the human heart (Eccl. 3:11). According to Nelson Cowan, a cognitive psychologist: “Your brain’s ability to knit together new patterns is limitless, so theoretically the number of memories stored in those patterns is limitless as well.”6
The infinite potential of our hearts and minds suggests that eternal life was not the birthright that was lost in Eden. Eternal life was simply a prerequisite condition for us to enjoy our actual birthright—the gift of eternal growth and deepening relationship with God.
Reclaiming Our Birthright
It is fair to wonder whether growth and fixed thinking are intrinsic to our nature, little more than a genetic lottery that we win or lose. Oh, the irony if that were true!
In her research Carol Dweck found that we are not born with fixed and growth mindsets per se, but we do develop a proclivity toward one or the other over the course of our lives, beginning at a young age. Children as young as 1-3 years of age are drastically influenced toward fixed or growth thinking by the type of praise offered to them.7 Frequent personal praise of intelligence, talent, and other fixed traits tilts a person toward a fixed mindset. Conversely, less frequent but specific and appropriate praise of process, dedication, and effort steer individuals toward a growth mindset.
The more time we spend turning our thoughts inward, on our own capabilities, on our limitations, on our qualities, and on our attributes, the more we will tend toward fixed thinking. It does not matter if we are focused on our accomplishments and positive attributes or if we spend time nitpicking every fault. Inward focus can lead only to limited, fixed thinking. The more time we spend focused on Jesus, however—His example, His promises, His triumphs—the more we are drawn to the infinite, to what is good, holy, and pure.
Knowing what He would achieve on the cross, Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again” (John 3:3, NIV). In our rebirth in Jesus, freed from the shackles of sin, we reclaim our birthright. This rebirth combined with the deep and abiding impact of the language of the heart may be the reason we are counseled “to spend a thoughtful hour each day in contemplation of the life of Christ.”8
Perfection: A Relationship of Growth
I’m embarrassed to share that my previous conception of perfection mirrored a toddler’s understanding of skill development. One day my little girl spied a person riding a unicycle and juggling simultaneously. She stopped in her tracks to drink in the scene. After a few moments she asked for a turn, fully believing she would hop onto the unicycle and, with instantaneous mastery, perform the very same feat she had observed.
That is how I thought of Adam and Eve: In their perfection they enjoyed lives filled with effortless accomplishment. Instant gratification attended their every action and thought. Challenge remained a foreign concept without definition. The thrill of delayed gratification, achievement as a result of perseverance, and eventual epiphany were not part of their experience. Perhaps this naive view most influenced my decades-long misapprehension of the gospel.
Have you ever wondered why all sin is not instantly removed when we are reborn in Jesus? I’m sure that every believer has experienced God’s gift of removing some sins almost immediately, even miraculously. But for each of us there are those other sins, stubborn and enduring.
In God’s growth paradigm, faith culminates in the restoration of God’s image of love (1 Peter 1:3-8). The inception of this re-creation process marks the beginning of an eternal journey with God. Initial “quick wins” in our journey build our faith and offer encouragement. The removal of difficult weeds lays the foundation for growth as we diligently build knowledge, virtue, self-control, perseverance, and godliness.
Jesus’ promise is “to him who overcomes.” If we allow Him, despite our sometimes halting, faltering will, He will illumine our lives, shining brighter and brighter unto the perfect day (Prov. 4:18).
Growth’s Promise to Laodicea and to Us
I’m Laodicea!
Eventually thoughts of Thomas and mindset turned to Jesus’ loving admonishment to His end-time church. “You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked” (Rev. 3:17, NIV). Despite being advantaged in every way (cf. Rom. 3:1, 2), fixed thinking imprisons the church in pride, entitlement, and a lack of self-awareness; the embodiment of untapped potential and comfortable mediocrity.
Yet God’s divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). Jesus beckons us, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock” (Rev. 3:20), offering restoration and infinite relationship filled with discovery, purpose, and fulfillment. Ellen White says of our eternal home:
“There, immortal minds will contemplate with never-failing delight the wonders of creative power, the mysteries of redeeming love. . . . There the grandest enterprises may be carried forward, the loftiest aspirations reached, the highest ambitions realized; and still there will arise new heights to surmount, new wonders to admire, new truths to comprehend, fresh objects to call forth the powers of mind and soul and body. . . . And the years of eternity, as they roll, will bring richer and still more glorious revelations of God and of Christ. As knowledge is progressive, so will love, reverence, and happiness increase. The more men learn of God, the greater will be their admiration of His character.”9
This is God’s growth paradigm. This is our birthright. Jesus stands at the door and knocks. Won’t you answer?
1 Po Bronson. “How Not to Talk to Your Kids,” New York Magazine, Feb. 9, 2007, https://nymag.com/news/features/27840/, accessed Dec. 27, 2022.
2 Po Bronson, Ashley Merryman, in NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children, Sept. 3, 2008, https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7411029
-thomas-his-middle-name-is-a-fifth-grader-at-the-highly.
3 Bill Murphy, Jr., “Want to Raise Successful Kids? Science Says Praise Them Like This,” Inc.com newsletter, Nov. 28, 2016, http://www.inc.com/bill-murphy-jr/want-to-raise-successful-kids-science-says-praise-them-like-this-most-parents-do.html, accessed Dec. 27, 2022.
4 Maseena Ziegler. “7 Famous Quotes You Definitely Didn’t Know Were From Women,” Forbes, Sept. 1, 2014, https://www.forbes.com/sites/maseenaziegler/2014/09/01/how-we-all-got-it-wrong-women-were-
behind-these-7-famously-inspiring-quotes/, accessed Oct. 24, 2024.
5 Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1890, 1908), pp. 50, 51.
6 Danielle Venton, “Big Question: Can My Brain Get Too Full?” Wired, June 16, 2015, https://www.wired.com/2015/06/can-my-brain-get-too-full/, accessed Dec. 29, 2022.
7 Murphy, Jr.
8 Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1898, 1940), p. 83.
9 Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1911), pp. 677, 678.