The Mind and the Good Life

Romans 8:1-8

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law—indeed, it cannot, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Romans 12:1-2

1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”  It’s a saying I learned in kindergarten that tried to teach me to not pay attention to the mean things other kids might say.

It is true that a spoken word will never break skin like a stick or stone can, but the reason the saying was created is because words actually can hurt. They can inflict invisible wounds that last longer than any cut or broken bone.  Words can have power, they can be a weapon.  And like any weapon, they can be used for evil, but they also can be used for good.

Our thoughts, what goes on in our minds, are words as well.  Unspoken, internal words, but powerful words nonetheless, and once again have deep potential for the greatest good and the darkest evil.

Thoughts don’t usually start out big or loud.  They’re echoes, small whispers, little ideas usually at first.  But the more we listen to them, and listen for them, the louder they become, the more true they sound, the more we believe them.

This works with negative thoughts, “I’m stupid,” “I’m ugly,” “I’m unlovable,” as well as with positive ones, “I am loved,” “I have gifts,” “I was made for a purpose.”

We may not believe the thoughts at first, but the more we pay attention to them, the more we repeat them, it’s like throwing one more log on that fire, and the more we feed the fire, the hotter and more consuming it will become.

I think this is much the same as what Paul talks so much about in his letters of the war between flesh and Spirit.  When we do things throughout our day, we’re metaphorically placing a log on a different fire, in this case we can call one fire “the flesh” and the other “the Spirit”.

But we’re not the only ones placing logs on our fires…the people around us, the things we listen to, can throw logs on either fire as well if we let them.  This is why we have to be thoughtful of our minds.  We have to think about what we’re thinking about.  We have to pay attention to what we’re surrounding ourselves with.

Are we being conformed to the pattern of this world?  Mindlessly absorbing what everyone around us says is good?  More money, a nicer neighborhood, escaping the world and starting a homestead?  None of these things in and of themselves are bad, but we have to ask why we want them.  Is that really where the Spirit is leading us or is that what our flesh wants?  Maybe it’s a little of both…

But how do we know God’s will?  His good, pleasing and perfect will?  Paul says, we need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.  Not the complete overhaul of our minds…we don’t need to start back at square one necessarily, but we need to be able to sift through our thoughts and ask what is really true? What is really good?  What is really from God?

How is it possible to do this?  

We ask.  We ask God to help us change, we ask God to transform our minds, we ask God to give us the strength to stop conforming to this world.  

We seek.  We seek the Spirit in everything we do, in every decision we make.  We seek wisdom in the scriptures, we seek wisdom through our elders.

We surrender.  We accept that we are made of flesh and will always struggle at some level with our fleshly desires and with the constant current of the pattern of this world, so we surrender to the Spirit and his guidance that we sought, even when it seems painful.

We set our mind on the Spirit, we try to notice every wandering thought, we ask God to help us identify what is of the world (or flesh) and what is of the Spirit, and we cast aside logs that want to build the fleshly fire and accept the ones that build the Spirit’s fire.  Paul says that is when we find life and peace.