Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy…mind…
When I walk by the river and think
of mind, I think of flow, of current, of direction. The river is born to seek
the ocean, and that’s all it does. Our minds were born to seek God, but they,
unlike the river, have free choice. We are even free to choose to believe we
have no free choice. Consider that one for a minute!
I see the river doing all kinds of
things at once, just like my mind. In the middle, it’s rushing along without
much impedance, heading ever downhill. Then there are stretches that rush and
ruffle over rocks and sandbars—impeded, but not letting the obstacles stop it.
In fact, you could anthropomorphize (not that I would ever be guilty of
that!!) and say the river seems to enjoy the obstacles.
Along the edges, there are spots
where the river slows, circles, seems to get nowhere, but as long as it’s still
connected to the main flow, that part of the water will move along, too, just
at a different pace.
I mentioned last week that people
used to be able to care for this river, to keep an open channel. I got to
wondering what things I do, or could do, that keep an open channel in my mind?
I’ve noticed that one thing that
makes the river flow more freely is rain. At first, I thought of this in the
usual, even clichéd interpretation of
rain as adversity, but for the river, rain is not adversity, rain is life.
Rain, to fill my mind, might be the water of the Holy Spirit’s presence.
Side waters might be good, for
breaks, but how can I keep them from becoming separated from the flow, and
getting stagnant?
I can use my mind to love myself by
not allowing obstacles to get me down, by not speaking to myself in hurtful
ways I would never use with another, by, as a friend of mine puts it, “paying
attention to what I’m paying attention to!”
I can use my mind to love others by
my words, written and spoken, by listening carefully when they speak, and
watching their faces for the things they can’t say in words.
I can use my mind to love God by
casting out into the depths of that immense, unfathomable love, by thinking of
that love and patience and majesty, by trying (and failing!) to put some of it
into words.
How do you keep your mind flowing
free with love?
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