The
other day I had a very spirited conversation with a Christian (claims
to be a member of the United Church of Christ, which is interesting
because I have yet to run into a UCC'er who actually believes in
Christ.) friend of mine about Luke 6:30, give to whoever asks.
Being somewhat wealthy, my friend starts talking about some disaster
that happened in China and about being solicited for money by three,
yes, count'em three different relief agencies but...yada, yada, yada
and a blah, blah, bladee-da.
I
said, "What are you even
talking about?! How about one on one? You get panhandled; a grifter
tries to hook you into a short con and you come back at me with some
disaster in CHINA, for God's sake!?" Actually, by this point in
the conversation I was speaking somewhat, um, loudly, I was
gesticulating somewhat wildly and I am fairly certain my eyeballs
were bulging. Just a bit.
"Look,"
I said, "you just proved my point! For a person to be
different, they must think differently!
Your thinking hasn't changed one bit, you're still thinking like a
wealthy, liberal, worldly human being!"
"And
how am I supposed to think?" my friend retorts.
"Well,
how about thinking like God?"
My
friend is speechless for a moment. I watch their wheels turn and
then, "Oh, that's just crazy! (And if
anyone knows crazy, it is my friend. They're a psychiatrist. Mine,
actually.) How are we supposed to think like God?"
"Well,
good question," says I. "I've been speaking English for
going on 51 or 52 years but ask me to teach someone English and I
don't have the faintest idea how. Hold a gun to my head
(exceptionally hard to do for a wealthy liberal) and tell me to
diagram a sentence and, hey, you may as well just go ahead and pull
the trigger (even harder to do) 'cause I haven't diagrammed a
sentence in 35 years or there about and I haven't the foggiest notion
how."
But.
It
really is simple. Once you figure out who you belong to, then
you know how you are supposed to THINK then ACT or rather how to
BE. (As in, to be or not to be that is the question...)
In
the movie The Usual Suspects, Customs Agent Dave Kujan is
sitting on the desk of Sgt. Jeff Rabin of the San Pedro Police
Department, beside him but more facing Rabin's bulletin board,
looking at it, behind Rabin.
Agent
Kujan: Man, you're a slob.
Sgt.
Rabin: Yeah, but it all has a system, Dave. It all makes sense
when you look at it right. You gotta, like stand back
from it, you know?
*
* * WARNING! SPOILER ALERT (well sort of) * * *
And
as Dave Kujan starts looking at the bulletin board, made by Quartet
of Skoie, Illinois, he starts to put the pieces together. The
bottom of his broken coffee cup (he dropped it on the floor when he
started to realize what happened) is made by Kobayashi China.
That's the final piece of an extremely difficult puzzle and HE is
standing back and looking at the pieces differently. Oh, yes,
Agent Kujan, you have been the stupid one. OH!!! He finally
knows who Keyser Soze is! But, like Elvis,
Keyser has left the building! "...And like that (puff) he's
gone." Fade to Black. (Still gives me chills after the nth
viewing.)
*
* * End of Warning * * *
So
figuring this out should be a no brainer. Right, Cubby?
If
you step back. It's like one of those drawings where you see a frog
but you're supposed to find a horse's head. Eventually, after
reorienting your brain, you see the horse head. There are some people
who can't see that horse's head if their life depended on it. They
can't change the way they perceive a thing; the way they think.
It ain't the eyeballs Cubby that are doing the image interpretation,
it's your brain. Presented
with one image but told to see another, they can't. Or, maybe, they
won't.
The
strangest thing: once you find the horse's head you immediately
see the horse the next time you see the drawing (it's like you
can't help it) and it takes a minute to see the frog!
The
analogy is simple. It is easily adaptable to life in this world and
life with your Lord, Jesus. Reorient your thinking, keep working at
it and voila!
You
start thinking like Jesus!
You
start thinking like God!
Ain't it a kick in the head, Cubby?!
When
asked to think like this world you have to think longer to reorient
your frame of reference. Dictionary.com defines Frame of
Reference as:
"A
structure of concepts, values, customs, views, etc., by means of
which an individual or group perceives or evaluates data,
communicates ideas, and regulates behavior..."
You've
had a frame of reference since
you were old enough to think. Since,
if you were lucky, yo' mama told you not to do something or she would
spank you. You took a
few seconds to think it over and you decided to do it anyway. And, as
promised, you got a whippin'. Then the next time, maybe you decided
doing what you were told not to wasn't worth it.
Frame
of Reference is how you interact with your environment based on
past experience affecting how you see and deal with both the present
and your perception of the future.
So
how do you train your mind to think like God's?
Why WOULD YOU WANT TO THINK LIKE GOD? A
latent superiority complex? You're a surgeon and you need to get your
God mojo on?
You
want to think like God because it's what's commanded in Scripture.
You know, by God, that God
does not give us anything we can't do
because we are all His ambassadors, His priests to represent Him to
the world.
I
have lost the attribution but a minister wrote, "Most of us have
goals that revolve around what
we want to
accomplish rather than
who we are, but
God wants us to develop character. When we focus on being
the person God wants us to be, then
we will accomplish what He wants us to accomplish."
(Think then Be.
Have you got it yet?)
The
focus has to shift because the end must fit what our LORD, our OWNER,
wants to accomplish through
us.
And it's all right there in the pages of the New Testament augmented
by the Holy Spirit within us.
Do
you get it yet? Is it coming into view?
Who
do you belong to?
New
Question: What do they want of us? What does Jesus/God
want of us, His slave, His child, His ambassador to humanity?
Have
you dug down in your guts, in your heart? Do you know the answer?
Have
you had a crystalline moment where
you can see and understand? Isn't
it like watching a full moon rise on a close horizon and it seems so
large that you could reach out and touch the face of the moon?!
And
when that moment of understanding comes and you realize the
true meaning of the question...in that private moment where
you know the true meaning and its significance, in the
blinding epiphany that
follows, do you not weep?!
For the joy of it?
Do
you feel the overwhelming desire to run to your owner,
your master, to be
wrapped in His loving arms. For the FIRST TIME in your life does the
meaning of crying Abba, Father
finally mean
something that makes your eyes flood with tears and your heart feel
like it will burst in your chest?
Is
it not so overwhelming that
you can hardly bear it?
It
is the ecstasy of the unbearable lightness of being? (*)
Jesus
said,
Come
to Me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you
rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and
humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke
is easy and My burden is light.
-
Matthew 11:28-30
Perhaps
this is a good stopping point meaning there will be a Part Trois.
I
have to stop. I can hardly type for the tears and the tremors in my
hands and the ache in my heart and no, 911 does not need to be
called.. I am simply overwhelmed with joy - even though in a
minute, two, ten, a half hour there may come along something that
disturbs this unbearable feeling of freedom in slavery, of joy, the
peace that passeth understanding! So, until Part
Trois...
May
the Peace of Christ be with you,
† Scott,
V.D.M. ev
-
- -
*
The unbearable lightness of being. Send me an email if you're
interested. It wasn't worth the 500 +/- words to explain.
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