Let’s face it. For most of us, we desire the path of least resistance. We’d like life to be easy, problems to be few, situations to be simple, and to have to think about things as little as possible. I don’t want to say that we’re lazy, but there is this desire to not challenge minds or our bodies into action. It’s much easier to simply drift along the river, than to paddle upstream.
And yet, if we really think about it, there’s something excellent about achievement. About pushing through difficulties. About triumphing over hardship. There is something good about pressing forward instead of surrendering to our slothful desires.
I suppose that’s why Dr Kawashima’s brain training has sold so many copies. People want to achieve. They want to move forward. They want to keep their brains sharp.
But this Sunday, when Alex Chow shared about renewing our mind (brain training of a different sort) he highlighted the difference between conforming and transforming. Where as Dr Kawashima’s brain training was about sharpening our dull minds, the Bible was speaking about something even more powerful. Transforming our minds. Shifting the paradigm of our thinking. Not simply accepting the world’s way of looking at things, but adopting God’s way of thinking.
For myself, this is where the message hit home. The stuff I read in the news, the shows i watch, the books i read, the movies i watch, all seem to numb and dull me in a way. It paints me pictures of hopelessness and cynicism. It makes me unsettled with the life i have now, but sells me a story that a new product will give me satisfaction. It seeks to entertain me, in order to keep me from engaging with my mind.
So then, if we are to love God with our minds, surely we must begin to exercise our minds to see what God sees, to know God’s truths, to hold onto His reality. The message we have is not one of cynicism, but one of hope. It is not one of fear, but of boldness. It is not a message of failure, but of triumph through Christ Jesus.
So let our minds be renewed and eagerly accept the transformation that God calls us to.
The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
1 Corinthians 4:4-6
ps. does anyone want to create Dr Chow’s Brain Transformation for Nintendo DS….
This was the third in a series about our Inner and Outer Life. You can find the message as well as the worship at the BCEC Sermon Page or listen to last week’s sermon directly – Inner Life : Renewing Your Mind.