So here's what I'm meditating on this week. Check it out for yourselves. Good stuff. It's all about RE-THINKING. The path to RE-thinking is clear. You and I have to UN-think old thoughts and RENEW our mindset.
- Ephesians 2:1-2
- Ephesians 4:23-24
- Romans 8:5-8
- Colossians 3:2
- Phillipians 4:8
I was re-reading The Calf Path, a great old poem by a guy named Sam Walter Foss. It's a GREAT read by the way, and you should take a minute and read it for yourself. In it, among "the many things this tale might teach", he likens old paths we walk down to a "sacred groove" that we move along our whole lives. And how, strictly out of habit or precedent, we reject new paths and new ideas and understandings, because we're stuck in the old ways.
I was thinking about how closely that mirrors our natural propensity to stick to the "old grooves" in the way we think. And as a result, the way we act. And how, when we do, it almost always leads us places God doesn't want us to go. Paul says, "The sinful mind is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so". When we were dead in sin, our thought-life was controlled by our old sinful nature. And we acted accordingly. We really had no choice. But now, since we're new creations in Christ, we need to adopt new ways of thinking. And act accordingly. There is really no choice there, either.
The balance of this week, as we think about mistakes we made, or the things we wish we'd done differently, remember that you and I, "are not controlled by the sinful nature but are in the Spirit" (Romans 8:9). It is by the Spirit - and only by the Spirit - that we can "put to death the misdeeds of the body".
How do we do that? RE-GROOVE!! Think differently. And act accordingly. Get off the calf path.
Peace.
