the greatest marathon
I've been reflecting a lot lately on the idea of training your mind; a biblical concept that stems (primarily) out of 2 Corinthians 10 in regards to our spirituality and faithfulness against "strongholds" that can steal our focus. In an age of click-and-buy, "insta"grams, and "conscious uncoupling", I think this has become an increasingly difficult concept for believers to live by.
I don't know about you, but I hear this phrase repeatedly brought up during challenging times of my life. "Take your thoughts captive" they say, "be thankful for what you do have". For someone like me, who carries their struggle and sadness on their face with complete transparency (heavy sigh), it is an obvious reflection that I am working through the kinks in my mind. I have a hard time doing this alone, so I talk talk talk to people who will give me council and help me understand what the heck I'm feeling in the first place. Then, I get frustrated with myself because I hear all of this great advice and the great results that will stem from focusing my mind and heart on the Lord, but I still don't get why it is so damn hard (excuse my damn).
Why is it painful to do something as simple as train your mind? There are days when I wake up with complete optimism (praise Jesus), and I begin it with prayer and joy and the birds outside are singing and I think I might cry from the beauty. I think, for a moment, that I must be doing okay and I know that God and my friends love me abundantly. But then comes the wrench, the crazy driver on the road, the meeting you really need to have that got canceled again, the person who is mad at you that you didn't know about, the unpaid bill you can't afford, the girl (or guy) who appears to be doing a much better job at life than you on instagram. "It's all coming apart at the seems!!" I think; and my mind quickly starts to crumble.
Funny, yes, but true. And I don't think I'm the only one. If we don't feel like things are neatly packaged and resolution phrases coined for what we are going through, we let it affect our devotion and focus. Suddenly, we fall short in some way. We think we must work harder at school to get the good grades, or we must work harder at flirting if we ever want to get married, or we must work harder at our outfits if we want more likes from our virtual friends. But, wait, what?! Doesn't God tell us that what we need to be working hard at and focusing our minds on is his knowledge? At what point throughout our bombarded lives do we stop doing this and lay down his knowledge for lesser ideas of fulfillment.
Well, God's word tell us that we need to be "ready" (2 Corinth. 10:6). Not ready as in next week, tomorrow, or even 2 hours from now. Ready now. It is a daily, moment-by-moment effort to train or minds to look at our objective situations through the Lord's eyes. This also comes with the daunting task of knowing what exactly the Lord's knowledge is. We have to read his word and allow his voice to take a bigger seat than any other cranky expectation trying to get in there.
On days when I make the (initially) painful effort to do this and let go of all the other voices around me telling me I am not good enough, there is a profound freedom and joy that comes from letting go and taking hold of God's word. I cannot deny who my Heavenly Father is when I am focused on him. When I respond with confident love for my friends and family out of that same obedience to his knowledge. When I remember that I can offer hope to the hopeless because the Lord has given me the greatest hope. His love and knowledge never fails. But we have to keep at it. Every moment of every day. We have to seek him and train our minds in his truth.
"Indeed, we live as human beings, but we do not wage war according to human standards;for the weapons of our warfare are not merely human, but they have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ. We are ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete." 2 Corinthians 10:3-6
Here are some faces from the Philippines that inspire me daily to be ready and to train my mind in God's knowledge. They are worth it.
