mutable minds

Every time I hear the positive thinking idea–think of good things and you’ll feel better about life and yourself–I want to lash out, shake the person and say, ‘Life is really hard! Wake up!’ I don’t and probably won’t ever actually do that. But I am a realist (back off on calling me a pessimist, you always-hopefulls), and I work in possibilities, not probabilities: so if it is not outside the realm of happening–though perhaps unlikely–it is a legitimate concern, idea, potential, etc.

Now as a result of having this mind of mine which entertains every option, I see the world as a flaming mess with little hope for saving. This is sad. There is a great deal of truth in my conclusion but there is equal folly, for God is able to literally do anything within his power–which is limitless–and that includes remaking and redeeming all things... which he actually is planning on doing.

This is where something the Apostle Paul said is interesting, namely, we can change the way our minds think. In his long letter to the Christians in Rome, Paul said that our minds could be ‘renewed.’ Obviously this does not mean that we get our old brain taken out and a new one put inside. But it DOES mean that we can change the paths our thoughts usually tread, the ways and perspectives we think through life.

Oh my, you’ll be ‘fixed’ in a jiffy. Not even close! This does not mean you must hit your spirituality in to hyper-mode, be a monk and sing in solitude while you eat Haggis around honey bees and brew beer. It does mean that as we further realize who God is, what he has always been doing and understanding what we and this whole world were made for, the more that stuff ‘clicks’ and sinks in, the more we think in a way that says, ‘God is my reality and his words are the supreme truth.’

The mind is renewable for everyone. You do not have to remain in the old and poor patterns you always used; you don’t have to use the same bad logical of your past; you don’t need to be who you were–which is not how God made you to eternally be.

Jesus not only died for our sins, but he died for our minds as well.