Mind over Matters?

Last updated on: July 10, 2008 at 12:16 pm by David Hayward

Mind over Matters? 2008-07-10T12:16:33-04:00 David Hayward

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The mind is very complex. I would like to think that the mind controls the emotions and that I can, through thought, govern how I act. This is not the case. My desires actually shape my thoughts. In Ephesians 4: 22 I see that my old self is deluded by its lusts. In other words, my desires delude my mind. Whatever my deepest urges are, whether good or evil, my mind justifies them and supports them intellectually. History is replete with this. So is my own life. This is because I can’t admit I am capable of horrendous evil. And if I am capable, it is latent within me. It is a potential I possess. So whenever my deepest and darkest urges take over, I justify them with some kind of twisted argument that turns it all in my favor because I want to be good or appear good.

This is why the church is a tricky place. It tends to be the place where this mind-game is encouraged, supported and rewarded. I am quickly impressed with the appearance of good and quickly dismayed by the appearance of evil in others. I reward one and punish the other. By my actions I force evil to go underground in my own life and in the lives of others to do its malicious work more subversively, and I also encourage religiosity to dominate the spirit of the place. This way everybody is happy. And false. By continuing in this way we encourage codependency, immaturity and superficiality in individuals and in relationships. It promotes arrogance and disdains humility. It fears, and therefore obeys, the power of death.

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