Dreaming of Silver Roses

I think God is hammering away at an area of my life I haven’t thought about- really focused on- in a long time. The inner life.  It’s, um, no big secret that I have a very ….vivid imagination. It’s no secret that my thought life is a world all its own!

In my college days, I heard a speaker talk about giving God your mind as much as the rest of you. I was fired up. I was inspired. …..Lately however, I think I may have forgotten all about how important it is.

Everyone from Dr. Phil to Oprah would agree that so a man thinks, so goes the man. There are tons of positive thinking websites out there that would agree with Gandhi, who said “A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes.” I agree to a degree that positive self talk helps us accomplish a lot. But I think we need more than our own eye turned positively inward on ourselves. I don’t know everything. I am not omniscient. And we all know of times we have reached the end of ourselves and can’t talk or figure our own way out of where we are.

Joyce Meyer talks about “The Battle Field of the Mind”. That our thought life is a battle ground. I would agree with that! I have fought many wars internally that never (PTL) made it onto the field of reality. I am glad. After all:

“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

I think often however  I fall into the pit of the person who believes, “what they can’t see belongs to me”. No one has to know. Then I am reminded as Nowen writes:

What Is Most Personal Is Most Universal

We like to make a distinction between our private and public lives and say, “Whatever I do in my private life is nobody else’s business.” But anyone trying to live a spiritual life will soon discover that the most personal is the most universal, the most hidden is the most public, and the most solitary is the most communal. What we live in the most intimate places of our beings is not just for us but for all people. That is why our inner lives are lives for others. That is why our solitude is a gift to our community, and that is why our most secret thoughts affect our common life.Jesus says, “No one lights a lamp to put it under a tub; they put it on the lamp-stand where it shines for everyone in the house” (Matthew 5:14-15). The most inner light is a light for the world. Let’s not have “double lives”; let us allow what we live in private to be known in public. (excerpt from the Nowen Society- Henri J. Nouwen (http ://www.henrinouwen.org/)

Um, scary place for those who don’t guard their hearts well! No wonder the wise man said, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” (Proverbs 4:23)

How do I do that? What guards my heart? Well Paul gives us a hint in Philippians:

6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

 8Finally, 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.

What I ‘dwell’ on will affect me. That’s how we get into all manner of delusions. Someone once told me that the progression from thought to destiny works this way. Persistent thoughts unchecked lead to actions. Consistent actions lead to habits. Reoccurring habits develop into character traits. Then your character will determine your destiny. And it all begins on the slippery slope of my thought life. It’s up to us to check those thoughts and take them captive in Christ.

4The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. – 2 Corinthians 10.

I agree with the Nouwen society, accountability and obedience are some of my biggest deterrent against developing a double life. And a double life can become a maze of trying to cover my own……bases. It’s time to think on  the true, noble, righteous, purity, loveliness, and the admirable. Excellence in my lifestyle applies even behind my eyes.

Filed under: Christianity, life on February 23rd, 2008