Mminds are like parachutes – they work best when open

   The Trouble With a Too-Open Mind!           

    Someone observed that minds are like parachutes – they work best when open. That is especially true when it comes to finding and understanding God’s will in the Bible. Acts 17:11 describes the reaction of first century Jews in Thessalonica when they heard the apostle Paul preach Christ – “These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily whether these things were so.” An open mind is necessary if God’s word and will is to ever gain entrance. But a mind can become too open. Terry Pratchett pointed out, “The trouble with an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it” (Reader’s Digest, June, 2007; p 158). Have you considered some of the things people want to put into our minds? As of Friday, June 26, 2015, five of the nine justices on the United States Supreme Court now want to put it into our minds that “same-sex” marriages are no different legally or even morally than the Bible’s definition. You know, the one that for thousands of years has defined marriage as a relationship where God joins “male and female” so that “the two become one flesh” in order to, among other things, propagate the human race (Genesis 1:26-28;  Matthew 19:4-6).

And then along comes Bruce Jenner, the powerful, athletic guy who won the gold medal in Decathlon competition at the 1976 Olympics. Jenner now wants to put it into our minds that he is no longer a male but has “transgendered” into a female! And so his name is no longer “Bruce” but “Caitlyn.” On ABC on Wednesday night, July 15, 2015, at the ESPY Awards (acronym for Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Award) in Los Angeles, Jenner received a standing ovation when he was given the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage. Back on April 24, the former Olympian, former male, said in an interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer, “For all intents and purposes, I’m a woman.” Mind you now, Jenner is 65 years old, has been married to three different women, has six biological children and four stepchildren. But now he and those who support him want to put it into our minds that it is “courageous” to be openly “transgendered.” Really? Is it just me, or are these people too open-minded? Many people are morally and spiritually more mixed up than a termite in a wooden yo-yo.

    G. K. Chesterton said something our uncritically tolerant and undiscerning age desperately needs to hear. He said, “Merely having an open mind is nothing. The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.” Being too-open-minded is not a new problem. Adam and Eve died spiritually because they ate forbidden fruit. But the big trouble they found themselves in started because they were too open-minded and believed the devil’s lie. Two thousand years ago an inspired man urged God’s people about the need to be open-minded – but also to run everything that sought entrance into their minds through the filter of God’s word – “Prove all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:21- 22). Anatole France reminds us, “If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.” It is foolish to poke just anything someone wants to feed into your open mouth. God help us remember the same thing is true of our minds.

-- by Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN