One of the things I most struggle with as a pastor is the fact that the human mind is not only reluctant to be renewed but resistant. I not only deal with this in the lives of the people I pastor, but with my own mind too. The mind does not want to change. It wants to remain comfortable, secure and immune. I believe this is the natural bedrock of the human being. Psychologically, spiritually, religiously, even organically, the mind refuses to change. Its primary function is to protect the organism. So for the mind to end, to die, is the last thing the mind is willing to do. It will not!
We are naturally and organically escapist, unrealistic and religious. We seek for confirmation of what we already believe. We create proofs for ideas we already have. Even the most radical of our thoughts are justifications, excuses and vindications for the way we already think. I don’t know why I keep getting surprised by how religious we are with our trite and clichéd platitudes. We have such a strong urge to be affirmed, comforted and secure that renewal is simply out of the question. It is our most basic refusal to not die, to not suffer, to not end and be crucified.
Is it possible to enter death, to take up the cross, and to die today? Is it possible for my mind to end as it is now in order that it might be raised to new life? I believe it is possible. But right now it seems like the impossible possibility.
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So true. I noticed this recently in my favouritism towards certain Bible passages, above others, which confirm certain of my own “pet” theories. The lack of genuine rigour in my searching for truth sometimes horrifies me, but then at other times its easier to sit in my own safety and not be changed. Groan, thanks David.
“Even the most radical of our thoughts are justifications, excuses and vindications for the way we already think†(NP)
It doesn’t really bother me that people think like this – have a reason for why they believe what they believe…I might contend Jesus thought this way (in his debates with Pharisee’s and whoever else he debated with). Also Jesus gets into idea like foundation building – and having a sturdy under-girding to one’s moral life.
My problem begins when the evidence for something to change happens and the person refuses to respond because they ‘don’t think they can’. I recently ran into this problem with someone who knew better but totally could not believe they could change. I had to be very upright and firm with the person since the behavior was detrimental (to the person and others around her). The person eventually got the point – I wasn’t the only one speaking into this person’s life – but I saw how delusioned someone can get to something obvious.
I think as people we need to develop paradigms and ways of thinking – for our own betterment. I am not saying this does not include aspects of death (figuratively – to certain ways of coping or thinking) – since it does – but we need to develop a pattern for life (isn’t this kind of common sense?). All I know is I have a certain way I live my life and it works – not saying I won’t change for better reasoning (I will) – but the paradigm needs to exist.
That being said, I agree – as humans we are a stubborn bunch.
Dave, we certainly are creatures of habit and not only do we resist changing ourselves but we work hard to keep those in our life from changing as well. We don’t want them to stop doing those things that make us “comfortable” even if, sometimes, those things are disfunctional.
Personally I am going through a time of reajusting my religious belief system. Separating out the things that have been ingrained from my childhood. Jesus is still key in my faith and the fact that He gave up His life for me but I find I as I try to see Him in a light apart from how He was presented to me as I grew up, my brain screams in discomfort. I find it accusing me of betraying Him and what all those well meaning people who taught me what they had been taught and the insights they had gotten over time. I want to read my Bible and see Jesus as He would reveal Himself to me personally but it is very difficult read it as if for the first time. I want to see how He shows Himself in my everyday life,as well, because I think it is here He can be found.
Someone was telling me recently that there was a neuro-something doctor on Larry King saying that the brain maps our thoughts and when we think the same things over and over there is a pathway physically made. The brain of a depressed person, when scanned, looks different than a person who is not depressed. A time is coming when they will be able to assess whether of not treatment is effective by doing a scan. But This doctor said the brain has been trained to think in this way and new paths have to be formed by reconnecting neurotransmitters to a new destination. It sounds to me that when Jesus reffered to the renewing of our minds He was not just talking about our thoughts but about the actual physicality of our brain. It will take time and repeatedly denying our brain of the desire to follow the old path.
I find this fancinating but also enlightening when I realize I still have to resist the tendency toward depression. It is hard work but in the end I think “changing my mind” can be very rewarding. We can’t give up.
I agree, and that’s why organised religion preys on the young and malleable. Get ‘em young and they’ll hardly ever change their minds. How many religious adults are honest enough to ask themselves: why am I religious? Is it nature or nurture?
“I don’t know why I keep getting surprised by how religious we are with our trite and clichéd platitudes. We have such a strong urge to be affirmed, comforted and secure that renewal is simply out of the question. It is our most basic refusal to not die, to not suffer, to not end and be crucified.”
this makes it really hard when we are called to HELP people die, which is what we are doing when we are discipling one another. when we find it hard to put to death the old self (as we do) how can we tell others that it is easy? i know we can’t, but others seem to do it and get away with it. perhaps they are better at hiding than i am.
Hey David
Say hi to the wife for me and Denise.
“First we make our habits, then our habits make us.”
I just left this comment at another site and it seems to also “fit” here:
“I long ago came to the conclusion that God’s “will” is just another name for God’s “Spirit”. When we speak of our own will, we do not refer to choices made, but to that part of us which chooses. God’s Will, then, is that part of Him which now indwells me without forcing Himself upon me, which is will-”ing” to walk with me in that which I choose while being unto me a Source of peace, wisdom, a tug on my heart, grace in my stumbling, hope for the road ahead. I very much agree, therefore, when you express it as the will of God being “that we each uniquely reflect the glory of God wherever we happen to be”….
For me, Christ is not a religion, but a Reality whose entrance into me did not change “me” in any way other than in my awareness of that fact. Do we tend to amen the Gospel as we understand it, turn the Life that has been given us back into a program where we define Him rather than the other way around? You bet we do. It remains, even as it has always has been: a matter of whether we know Him, in all that He is, embracing His rod and His staff, in the next step…
You have to critique yourself all the time. And then there is a peace beyond I’ve found.
Nobody will change until he has to.
There are 2 motivating factors in life, the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. If you want people to change you just have to make it painful enough
It doesn’t happen from the inside out, but rather from the outside in. And when it does happen, it is often imperceptable to us.
We die daily, and repent daily. He does this to us, via His law. He does this to us via baptism and His supper.
‘Extra nos’, is the key (I believe) from outside of us. Like you have said countless times, and you are so right…we just do not want to die. So He has to do it for us.
Just like about every other thing He wants from us. (He gives it all and does it all to us)