(As found in the March, 2011 issue of Michigan In Touch)
Imagine with me, if you will, that you are in fact an Olympic caliber athlete. You are in training for 1,600 and 3,200 meter events at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England. With just a little over two years left for training and tryouts, how many of you would begin the Twinkies diet between now and the Games?
As I write this, The North American International Auto Show is taking place in Detroit, Michigan (1.11). From what I’ve heard (I’ve never been there), it’s a glitzy display case for the newest in automobile design and technology. If you were fortunate enough to be able to buy one of the display vehicles, would you fill the fuel tank with water, or Gatorade, or your favorite beer?
The food we eat or the fuel we use will ultimately determine the performance and well being of our bodies and our vehicles. Everyone would agree with this. From Atkins Bars or wheatgrass shots to octane boosters and synthetic oils, companies which help us determine what to put into our bodies and into our cars are multi-billion dollar industries.
What could be more important than what we put into our bodies and into our cars? Unfortunately, it is an area that we rarely deliberately consider, or if we do, it is with a “whatever” nonchalance. What you “fuel” your bodies or cars with really pales in comparison with what you feed … your minds.
Paul is speaking to the regenerate child of God in Romans 12:2 about how to live in this world when he writes: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” In Philippians 4:8 and 9 he is even more specific: “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. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” Knowing how to live in this world and doing so with the peace and benediction of our Lord is something we ALL need.
I’d like to share three “laws” with you that I pray will help determine what we will put into our minds and be a huge encouragement to reading the Scriptures on a daily basis. They are: The Law of Cognition, The Law of Exposure, and The Law of Least Resistance.
The Law of Cognition
The Law of Cognition basically says that you are what you think. It is built around the truth that the way you think is the single most important shaper of who you are as a person. The way you think creates your attitudes … shapes your emotions … and affects your behavior. (Some would even say that it has a lot to do with your vulnerability to sickness and your immune system.) This basically describes the field of cognitive psychology, one of the most prominent schools in American psychology.
Quite frankly, here’s where the social sciences are just beginning to understand what the Holy Spirit made clear to the Scripture writers thousands of years earlier. Proverbs 23:7 says, “For as he thinks within himself, so he is.” Jesus stated it in a more comprehensive way in Matthew 7:17-18, “Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.”
I think one of the things that Jesus is talking about is what goes on inside of us, our thought processes. When our thoughts are healthy, determined, and sound, they will produce a good life. When the thoughts are diseased, unhealthy, destructive, and sinful, they can’t bring forth a good life. You are what you think.
The Law of Exposure
The Law of Exposure is this: Whatever your mind is most exposed to, it will think about most. What enters your mind repeatedly occupies your mind, shapes your thoughts, and ultimately expresses itself in what you do and who you become. That’s why Paul exhorts: “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things,” Colossians 3:2.
Here’s a law that no one is surprised about: the law of gravity. No one would be taken by surprise if I dropped a crystal wine goblet on our cement garage floor and it shattered. But there remains general surprise over the fact that what our minds are constantly exposed to and dwell upon eventually comes out in how we feel and what we do.
We are flooded by sexual images from screens, terminals, magazine covers, and multiplexes. Then we express astonishment when promiscuity goes up and fidelity goes down and marital stability goes out the door.
Our children are exposed to thousands of acts of violence, even graphic violence, on television, in movies, in video “games.” Some of these violent acts are even “glorified.” Then we express amazement when high school shootings devastate a community like Columbine, Colorado.
Two things need to be remembered:
(1) the mind will absorb and reflect whatever it is exposed to; and
(2) you and I are NOT immune. (No matter how often your children say to you, “I can watch these shows, listen to these lyrics, play these violent games and they don’t affect me. I’m not really paying attention ...” they’re wrong. They are being affected.)
The events you attend, the materials that you read or don’t read, the music that you listen to, the images you watch, the conversations that you hold, the daydreams that you entertain, these are shaping your mind, and eventually your character, and ultimately your destiny.
The Law of the Path of Least Resistance
The Law of the Path of Least Resistance states that whatever’s easiest is probably the direction of flow. In other words, which is easier: to discipline yourself to exercise or read a book or to turn on the television so that you don’t have to take the initiative or be intentional about what is going to fill your mind?
The truth is that many of us are subject to living in an ugly circle where we work continually, are constantly tired, and consequently fall prey to the Law of the Path of Least Resistance. We don’t take the time to be still and quiet and make a conscious, determined effort to think about, and put into our minds, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable … whatever is excellent or praiseworthy.
Thinking, the thinking that shapes our lives and behaviors, takes maturity and discipline. Throughout Scripture, God invites us to understand that His blessing in our life comes through time with Him, a relationship with Him, fostered through the reading of His Word. Psalm 1:1-3: Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
Here, then, is where the Law of Exposure works positively in our behalf. If we really want to become a different kind of person – one that is true, noble, right, pure, lovely admirable, excellent and praiseworthy – it really is possible through the forgiveness and strength that Christ offers; it’s possible as we meet Him in the reading and studying of His inspired, holy Word. There, in the study of His Word, is the best place to be confronted by, and to start thinking, different thoughts.
This will not happen automatically, but Scripture indicates a few things we can do:
First, monitor your mind. In fact the Apostle Paul says that we should “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ,” 2 Corinthians 10:5.
Second, we need to heed the Law of Exposure: that is, we need to expose our minds to those resources—books, tapes, people, conversations—that will incline our minds to embrace the right kinds of subjects and thoughts. This will help protect us from the wrong kinds of damaging influences, because every source will move our minds one way or another.
Third, begin by doing something radical like shutting the TV off for a week, limiting your iPod time, or even your computer time. Your mind may need that just to create space for other thoughts. What I especially want to encourage you to do is this: make a commitment to say, “I will increasingly expose my mind to God’s Word through a daily study of Scripture.”
Friends, God has given us this Word for the transformation of our minds. He has given us this Word, in part, so that we can think about what’s true and honorable and pure and good and wholesome. Please make the effort! Part of this involves a corporate activity where we come together on a weekly basis for worship and Bible Study or Small Group Bible Study.
But, then there’s a real personal, private part. The Bible talks a lot about the idea of meditating on Scripture. In the very first Psalm it says that the man of God meditates on Scripture day and night. It just becomes a habitual thing.
Now the word “meditate,” I know, can be a little scary for some. So let me make it as simple as possible: How many of you know how to worry? If you know how to worry, you know how to meditate. Think of meditation as a positive form of worry. You take one thought, and you dwell on it and linger on it and absorb it until it becomes a part of you. You meditate on Scripture and, in this process, another beneficial choice would be to actually memorize Scripture.
The psalmist talks about memorization and its benefits: “I have hidden your Word in my heart that I might not sin against You,” Psalm 119:11. It really doesn’t matter how many verses you stow away. It’s not a quantity deal; however, in the act of saying, rehearsing, reflecting on, and absorbing Scripture, your mind changes. That thought from God’s Word becomes a part of your mind. It becomes a kind of filter or screen. It becomes something that’s excellent and praiseworthy that’s in you and that becomes a part of you. You begin to live on the basis of that Word.
I pray that reading and studying the Word of God becomes a part of your daily life that you anticipate and cherish. Through the work of the Holy Spirit in the Word may our lives be continually transformed as our minds are filled with excellent, admirable, honorable, and praiseworthy thoughts.
And as good and beneficial as that will be, remember: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him,” 1 Corinthians 2:9.
Rev. David P. E. Maier
Rev. Bryan Salminen, Ph.D.
Numerous Bible Reading Plans are available at www.michigandistrict.org; or go directly to numerous Bible Reading Plans offered on YouVersion.com by clicking on the link.
