a change of mind

Comments from my parents spoken during my growing up years still swirl inside my mind most days and have been known to fall out in my own conversations.  A funny thing that is.  I have lived on my own longer than we lived together, Mom and Dad, the boys and I, but many simple conversations during my childhood remain with me.   My young mind simply took the words captive. 

It’s humbling, as I consider the value of my own words hastily spoken in the course of a day.  And the hardest part is, you never quite know what words will be the ones to sink in deep.  Parenting is tricky that way.  Children never remember just the things you wish they did.

From my Mom: “Pray about it, sweetie.”  That was a regular reminder that I had more power than my own at my disposal.  This truth has guided me like a well-worn path.

My Dad would tell me, “If someone else can figure that out, you sure can.”  Most of the time those words give me courage and serve me well.  Only once, they nearly got me electrocuted, as I repeated them over and over on the top of a ladder changing a light fixture (with the power still on). 

When I face a challenge that seems too big for me, or a puzzle I can’t figure out, it is Dad’s relentless encouragement that I still hear and my Mama’s reminder to bring it to Jesus. 

“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:4-5

This passage has been both a quiet, sacred reminder, and at times, a battle cry.  Few verses have convicted my heart and softened it for change more than this.  To have every thought obedient to Christ?  I long for it to be so. 

Scripture tells us we are to be transformed by the renewing of our mind (Romans 12:2).  If we were sitting for coffee together today, I would tell you that there is nothing either of us need more than this.  Because, when our minds are transformed, our eyes are as well.  We can then see people more like Jesus sees them. 

 

The hard truth gets real here for a minute:

You will find what you look for.

If you keep finding negative things in someone you care about, things that just confirm thoughts you already have, well, it is time for a change of mind.   Time to unload some courage and intention to take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Paul knew that there was a need for some practical help here.  In his personal letter to the Philippians, he writes: 

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Phil. 4:8

Paul longed for the early church to understand genuine Christian commitment and what it meant for them to live like Christ. He encourages their transformation by encouraging them to rejoice, to be grateful and to pray (Phil.4:4-10). The instruction still works for you and I.  

Pure joy, especially through difficult circumstances, is a clear testimony about the Joy-giver.  Remembering God's goodness, faithfulness and sovereignty clears through the doubt and gives us reason to be hopeful and reason to be grateful.  Prayer takes us from the best that we can do and moves us into the realm of all that God can do.  Impossible situations are his specialty.

Finally, time in the word changes us with truth.  It is the best and only way I know to trade worry, doubt, irritability and fear for peace, hope and surrender. 

I have set my mind on Christ.  He has my full attention.  I am choosing gratitude, choosing joy, choosing kindness.  I want to be renewed by prayer and time in God's word.   I want the goodness of God to transform me so that I might love the Lord with all my heart, soul, strength…  

and to love him at last, with all of my mind.