by John Fischer
This is your mind... This is your mind on caffeine. Apparently they are two different things.
Researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia released a study showing that caffeine makes people more open to logical argument, even when it runs counter to their previously held opinions. The caffeine group, across the board, tested out as being consistently more open-minded than the decaf group. This would definitely lend new credibility to the belief that conversations over coffee are a good thing.
An open mind is necessary for any relationship to grow. You have to be open to another way of thinking to relate to someone, because we are all different – we have different backgrounds, different gifts, and we see things from different points of view. Lasting relationships grow out of accepting one another's differences. We appreciate each other more through consensus than through conformity.
This kind of open-mindedness in relationships is important for more reasons than just our differences. It is important because we are always changing, and since we are all in process, we have to remain open to that process in each other. My road will not be yours; yours will not be mine, even if we walk together. God has different plans for each of us. Jesus Christ did not die to create clones. He died so He could fill each one of our unique natures with Himself.
And finally, part of who we are becoming involves those closest to us. We are not who we are in a vacuum. We are a product of the people we know and how we have grown together. We shape each other. When this aspect is strong, there is a healthy push and pull at work. “As iron sharpens iron, a friend sharpens a friend.” (Proverbs 27:17 NLT)
Belief has commonly been associated with a closed mind. This is unfortunate because nothing could be further from the truth. Belief opens you up to God and gives you his Spirit to help reinterpret the world around you. Belief is all about discovery, and just as our relationships with each other are not static, neither is our relationship with God. We are constantly discovering more about God and his world, and we are constantly discovering more about ourselves and those around us.
So pour another cup of brew for you and that friend. Open your hearts and minds to each other, and get ready for a surprise!
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Poison ivy at the cross
By John Fischer
There is a cross at the camp I spoke at last weekend that sits atop a small rise affording a panoramic view of the surrounding countryside.
We had our final service there, a very meaningful communion service, while a strong Kansas wind blew through our small group of believers. The cross is made of roughhewn logs and sits in the middle of a circle roughly 40 feet in diameter. Except for a three-foot radius around the cross, the area is covered in concrete with stone seats on the perimeter. The small circle at the foot of the cross contains a few large stones – one served as a table for the elements – and what was once some vegetation, but has, out of neglect, turned into a heap of twisted vines and brambles.
Only a few leaves were left on these vines, and the prickly, tangled mass made me think of the crown the soldiers placed on Jesus the day He was crucified. As I stared at a few reddish leaves left on one of the vines, I noticed they were in a sinister grouping of three. I've learned to read that configuration as poison oak, but these were not oak leaves. When I asked someone there if this was poison oak, they told me, no, it was poison ivy. I was on the right track.
Poison ivy at the cross. Something about that seems like you would expect it – like evil lurking around its death site, still flaunting its power to trap and enflame. It has the audacity to spring up where it was conquered. Evil was beaten at the cross, it's just playing out its sentence on death row. Only time makes it seem still alive. Its days are numbered.
We need to remember this when we are tempted. For like this ivy around the cross, evil can still find its way to where we don't attend to life. If we neglect to care for and tend to our spiritual life, no telling what can take root.
Just remember this about sin: It feels good to scratch, but the itch never stops. Why go back to what the cross defeated? "
…and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil…" (Matthew 6:13)
There is a cross at the camp I spoke at last weekend that sits atop a small rise affording a panoramic view of the surrounding countryside.
We had our final service there, a very meaningful communion service, while a strong Kansas wind blew through our small group of believers. The cross is made of roughhewn logs and sits in the middle of a circle roughly 40 feet in diameter. Except for a three-foot radius around the cross, the area is covered in concrete with stone seats on the perimeter. The small circle at the foot of the cross contains a few large stones – one served as a table for the elements – and what was once some vegetation, but has, out of neglect, turned into a heap of twisted vines and brambles.
Only a few leaves were left on these vines, and the prickly, tangled mass made me think of the crown the soldiers placed on Jesus the day He was crucified. As I stared at a few reddish leaves left on one of the vines, I noticed they were in a sinister grouping of three. I've learned to read that configuration as poison oak, but these were not oak leaves. When I asked someone there if this was poison oak, they told me, no, it was poison ivy. I was on the right track.
Poison ivy at the cross. Something about that seems like you would expect it – like evil lurking around its death site, still flaunting its power to trap and enflame. It has the audacity to spring up where it was conquered. Evil was beaten at the cross, it's just playing out its sentence on death row. Only time makes it seem still alive. Its days are numbered.
We need to remember this when we are tempted. For like this ivy around the cross, evil can still find its way to where we don't attend to life. If we neglect to care for and tend to our spiritual life, no telling what can take root.
Just remember this about sin: It feels good to scratch, but the itch never stops. Why go back to what the cross defeated? "
…and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil…" (Matthew 6:13)
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