The Mind Keeps Going

We have had horrible weather this year surpassing record rainfall and it is not even November.  So the last two weeks we were unable to blow the leaves off the lawn because it has been raining.  But we had a very nice weekend and so I was able to get out yesterday and rake the leaves.  My iPhone is what keeps me going.  I was out blowing leaves (helped by my beautiful bride) for four hours.  For four hours there was constant repetition – back and forth, back and forth.  Without my iPhone, I would be bored stiff, but with my iPhone, I was kind of in a zone.  I listened to multiple podcasts, a couple of sermons and before you know it the four hours was up.  A friend of hours spends every year driving to Florida.  He sleeps pretty much all day, then they leave at 3:00 and drive all night.  He keeps awake because he is engrossed in audio books.  It keeps his mind active preventing him from falling asleep.

Paul talks in Romans about the mind being transformed.  He says “Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom 12:2).  Renewal of the mind is something that every one of us can identify with.  The mind has the capability to completely set us off track.  Our mind can cause us to obsess with something completely wrong for us.  The mind can make us a prisoner of sin (Rom 7:23).  Paul says to set our mind on things above, not on things of this earth” (Col 3:2).  So we have to train our mind.  We have to set the iPhone content of our lives on things which train us for godliness.  That is why I memorize Scripture because I am training my mind.  It is incredible how God churns the word back and forth in my brain.  When I am in deep, dark valleys, the word of God comes alive in my mind. 

I am shocked at how many Christians do not train their minds.  Emotions rule the day.  This allows them to get too high or too low.  Paul says in Romans 8:6 that the mind set on the Spirit provides life and peace.  In the ebbs and flows of life, it is the mind that keeps us on the right track.