Have you ever heard that from one of your parents? Well, if you’re not from the South, maybe you only heard the second part, but I bet you heard it one time or another! This spasm of parental chastisement usually underscored some incredibly stupid act which was done without any thinking at all and, because of this parental response, was immediately recognized with the thought, “Oh boy, now I am in for it!” And our minds would have to suffer some sort of training, perhaps a lecture, perhaps a punishment, perhaps just the stomach aching knowledge that once again our thinking was deficit in the eyes of our parents (I am so disappointed in you!)
The result? This link between action and mind was made very clear to us.
Where do we dwell? Where do we really live? Most people would say “in our bodies” first, but if pressed would have to conclude that our mind is really the seat of our lives. It is there that we process whatever happens to our bodies. It is there that we make decisions on what we will do each day with our bodies.
Paul, speaking to his fellow Christians at Phillipi, instructs them to think on “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things” (Phillipians 4:8, NAS).
This got me thinking! Isn’t it amazing how one thought can generate a single kind act or a lifelong pursuit of actions. I think of Mother Theresa who has said that seeing a poor person on the streets of Calcutta motivated her to give her life to the service and comfort of the poor and of my dear friend Charles Buregeya who saw the thousands of street children of Rwanda and decided he would help them (check out his ministry at www.anlm.org). I wonder at the composition of Amazing Grace by John Newton during a terrible storm at sea, of Handel’s Messiah written in just 24 days, of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 written at the beginning of his deafness http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2LeoGs6ObY&feature=player_detailpage, of Fanny Crosby, the blind woman who composed over 8000 songs of praise to God in her head before dictating them to others to write out, of C. S. Lewis and the many brilliant works he gave us to help us understand the scriptures. I have gazed at the amazing works of Michelangelo and Van Gogh, where the beauty of the body takes your breath away and you almost feel the wind blowing across the field of flowers, pushing the clouds along. I have sat mesmerized during concerts when the music stirs the soul to sorrow or joy! And I have heard sermons or read works that so acutely address our life’s needs and so magnificently lift the soul to worship that I am almost swept away!
Our minds are so amazing-to be able to create beauty for others to enjoy in sound, in sight, in printed word-what a treasure. Is that not the part of us that God breathed into us, that part of us that sets us above the rest of our earth’s inhabitants? This ability to create, to lift other ups with our talents and our gifts, is Divinely given! Yet so quickly we sink into self-absorption, into daily petty arguments, into righteous indignation at slights which are laughable against the backdrop of what we are truly capable of doing for one another. How then, can we hope to enjoy one another and what we truly have to offer one another? The Bible instructs us in part to “set your mind on the things above.” Jesus gives us marching orders too, intended to help us: “Love one another just as I have loved you and love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.” There are a lot of wonderful, true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, good, excellent, praiseworthy things in our world, many of them right around us. I hope my blog will encourage you today to open your eyes and hearts to see them, to hear them, to feel them and to experience a joyful day as you think on these things .
No comments:
Post a Comment