Of all the things I’ve ever lost, I miss my mind the most

An old acquaintance of mine once said to me, “Of all the things I’ve ever lost, I miss my mind the most.”  You know, the older I get the more I’m coming to understand what he said.  Thinking about the mind of man, especially my own, brought about the inspiration for today’s editorial lesson.

As to my mind and it’s fallibility, I’ll give you a couple of examples, we’ll call them “slips”, as to how our minds sometimes work (or doesn’t work).  That give us an idea of just how the“finite” mind of man operates and then in the latter portion of the lesson we’ll look at some things the “infinite” mind of God has to say about this topic.

When I think about the “slips” of my own mind I’m reminded of something Paul once said about his mind.  In Rom. 7:23 he mentions the “warring in his mind.”  I’m pretty sure that all of us can assimilate with that feeling.  Our little “finite” minds just seem to have all kinds of faults and quirks, don’t they?  Some places in there where information and good sense go to become forever lost.  For myself, there’s a lot of things that I know that I know, but I can’t remember them.

And, because man’s mind is the way that it is, it can be tricked.  It can be fooled.  Some easier than others, I might add.  Scam and con artists make their living off of the way our minds operate at times.  If you have a computer you’re well aware of an army of scammers sitting in African coffee houses trying to give us millions of dollars left in the estate of some government official.  All we have to do is give them our bank’s routing number and they’ll deposit the money in our account.  How many people do you think have fallen for that trick?  It works because of the “greed” found in many people’s minds.

Well, let me tell you of a couple of “slips” of my own mind and then we’ll get on to some things the Bible has to say about our minds.  A while back I was getting dressed for the day and had put on a shirt.  When I tried to button it, the buttons were missing.  I began yelling to anyone available that someone had taken all the buttons off my shirt.  It’s a good thing no one was there to hear me, as I soon realized the buttons had not been stolen - they were on the inside of the shirt.  I simply had put it on inside-out.

The second “foible” of my mind occurred as I was driving down the road listening to some music.  I noticed that the station kept playing the same songs over and over.  Even when I tried changing the station I still was hearing the same songs.  It was the station changing effort that woke my mind up.  I was playing a music CD and not listening to a radio station.  I’m just happy that I was alone on this trip and no one was there to hear me talking to the radio.

When we turn to God’s Word we find many things written about our minds with some of them being phrases that just seem to paint pictures of our minds about our minds.  For an example, want a mental image of how the work of the Church should be accomplished?  Look at how is was done back in Nehemiah’s day.  A great work was done because “the people had a mind to work.”  (Neh. 4:6) Think about it - to accomplish anything one has to have set their mind on doing it and the Lord’s work today is accomplished the same way it was in Nehemiah’s day.

How is it that congregations are able to successfully accomplish their goals and duties?  Paul gives us the answer in 1 Cor. 1:10 where he “beseeches” the brethren there to be “...perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgement.”   Wouldn’t you agree that this formula given to the Corinthians would work the same for us today?

You know, Peter pretty much echoed the words of Paul when he penned these words: “Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous.”  (1Pet. 3:8) And Peter also uses another phrase in 1Pet. 1:13 that I find interesting.  There he admonishes us to “gird up the loins of your mind.”  What does that old form of English mean?  Basically, the same thing he said later on in 1Pet. 4:1 where he says for us to “arm ourselves with the same mind.”

Thinking of that last phrase of Peter reminds me of something a “buddy (?)” of mine once said to me.  He said that he wasn’t going to challenge me to a battle of wits because he didn’t fight unarmed people.  I’m pretty sure he was only kidding.

Going back to the thought of our minds being conned, tricked, the Bible tells us that this can happen to our “spiritual” minds and that there would be consequences to pay for allowing this to happen.  Back in Deut. 28:65 Israel was told that if they became unfaithful to God, there would be “curses” put on them.  Notice there that one of the “curses” was “sorrow of mind.”  Doesn’t sound too bad at first reading, does it?  But then again, how would you like to live out your life always having “sorrow” in your mind?  Of never having any joy or peace?  I’m sorry, but that just sounds like a pretty bad “curse” to me.

The Bible talks about something else that effects our minds.  In Eph. 4:17 Paul says that we shouldn’t “walk” (live) as do others “in the vanity of their mind.”  That coincides with what he wrote to the Colossians when for them to not be “vainly puffed up by their fleshly mind.”  I’m just afraid that these sorts of minds are very prevalent in the world today.

In Matt. 22:37, after being asked a question by a lawyer, Jesus replied: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God will all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” Nothing has changed since then except where it’s written.  Hebrews 8:10 says that it’s written “in our minds” and “on our hearts”  as opposed to “tables of stone.”

My final Biblical reference today consists of something said by David.  It’s a beautiful passage with some truly sound advice being said to his son, Solomon, on the occasion of announcing the passage of the kingdom to him as God had ordered it.  Notice the words of a father to his son on this great occasion.

                “And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve Him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind:

                 for the Lord searcheth all hearts and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek Him, He will be found

                 of thee; but if thou forsake Him, He will cast thee off forever.”   (1 Chron. 28:9)

Hopefully, we’ll always “have a mind to work” and to “be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgement.” 

Ron Covey