Advent 8 Tuning Up the Mind 2

[HKHaugan]

Advent 8 Tuning Up the Mind 2

Before we get into the tuning of the heart we need to look a bit more at the mind. We don’t want to underestimate the need for philosophical discourse since it would cut off dialogue with the intellectual who spends his life in search for truth, pure orderly thought. There are two words that describe an intellectual’s search for truth, worldview and wisdom. The first is a thinking package into which existence and experience can find an orderly pattern to satisfy the searching mind. The second is an internal sense of balance that can be trusted to make choices and decisions resulting in positive thinking and behavior. Isn’t it interesting that the devil’s temptation Eve felt in Eden was that she could have wisdom, that is, balance her physical, social and spiritual needs without God(Gen.3:6)?

Let’s look at the word ‘philosophy.’ It means literally, ‘love of wisdom,’ (Grk. philos, love---sophia, wisdom). Those whose intellectual ability causes them to have a passion for seeking academic knowledge as a doorway to wisdom need answers not only about the complexities of the world outside but also for their own world within. The search for knowledge and the wisdom to apply it are a part of our human reality (Gen.3:6, we desire them.). While academic knowledge is laudable it by definition is not wisdom, the internal balance needed to handle decision on demand. The academic finds his inner Waterloo when what he believed academic knowledge would accomplish was blocked at the wall of his own personal struggle for internal balance. He may have earned two doctorates and professorships only to find his interpersonal relationships in shambles and his prideful attempts to maintain his image alienating and isolating him from students and colleagues alike. Sin has a way of doing that.

Psychiatrists, psychologists, titans of industry and astute businessmen, accomplished people in every field, have divorces, lawsuits, conflicts and many have ended their frustrations in suicide. In all their efforts true wisdom eluded them because they could not allow their pride to consider the spiritual source not only of their problem, sin, but also its solution, faith.

Whatever we call it, pride, ego, self-elevation, conceit, the chase for control of the mind and heart through the back door of academia finds a ‘skull-and-crossbones’ posted on the back door of wisdom with the words “No Entry.” That is an exit door only. You have to go in by the front door, the heart. The key is in the lock. The key is a cross. The door of the heart has been caked over with the dust of pride, fear, guilt and self-justification. But turn the key and the dust falls away. The oil of faith in Jesus Christ frees the door bringing the Spirit of wisdom, the Holy Spirit, to put all things academic and spiritual in His personal living perspective.

Faith redefines knowledge. Knowledge is no longer narrowed by secular academics and a mind groping in aloneness and fear. Rather it is the experience of God entering and acting in the heart in such a way as to bring that internal balance of mind, heart and spirit understood within and acted without. This is the joy of relational discovery as God acts within us, His wisdom at work all the time, His wisdom restoring our rightful place in Him.

Php.4:8
”Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

Next, the heart. Stay tuned……..