I went to a church service once where the guest speaker spent the entire sermon talking about wrong thinking. He said the solution to the majority of life’s problems is correcting the way we think from negative to positive. It sounded a little too much like The Secret for me to be sure if I should take him seriously or not, so I kind of settled on not. But I’ve been reminded of it a lot since, and I really believe there’s truth in what he was saying. Every time we speak and act there is a thought behind it. People even have what we call a ‘thought life.’ Fantasies, temptations, faulty perspectives, all originate in our minds and are the reasons for so many of the things we do. Very often I am reminded of what Paul instructs us in Philippians 4.8:
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable– if anything is excellent or praiseworthy– think about such things.
It is amazing how much genuine effort it takes to do that because often I find myself viewing situations and reaching conclusions in a very negative light. Then I become reactive and operate in defense mode when the reality is I have every resource to stand above what other people choose to throw at me. Sometimes it is very easy to dwell too much on things and resist the option of finding a solution.
Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.
It makes sense now why Jesus would tell us to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. All of them, together, form the core of who we are. And all of them should be so enraptured with the Lord that our thoughts are his thoughts and our desires are his desires. When I am being honest with myself, I know that is not my life.
I have heard that verse, along with the Golden Rule, for essentially all my life. I always assumed Jesus said it and it could be called the greatest commandment because at that point, his life mission was all about love anyway. I never realized that those are called commands not because of the nature of the words but because they trace themselves back to Old Testament times. All of Moses’ books were full of commands. And the best part about them being buried in Leviticus 19.18 and Deuteronomy 6.4 amidst verses and chapters full of random instructions is that it solidifies for me the fact that God never changes. He was all about love from the beginning of time, and he is always going to be. It is who he is.
It is who I should be.
I know very well why I’m not. C.S. Lewis describes it wonderfully in his book The Four Loves:
There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket — safe, dark, motionless, airless — it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.
Buddhism is right in that regard. Life is suffering and suffering sucks. But we cannot choose the selfish route and close our hearts off to the world. I know that. And yet most of the time it is what I want to do more than anything else. Love, attachment, hope, it is all very dangerous.
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