Run Away Minds In Runaway World

[HKHaugan]

Runaway Minds in a Runaway World

Years ago Michael Green, the brilliant Anglican evangelist, wrote a book called Runaway World in which he exposed the world running away from spiritual reality as presented in Jesus. It was brilliant in its analysis and theme. It was a direct appeal to the secular mind to consider its ultimate destiny. When you get right down to it there are really only two kinds of mindsets, spiritual and secular. One that processes life through spirituality and the other through a self centered intellect. A spiritual mindset recognizes the mind is a gift but also its imperfections and limitations and the need for an external source to filter experience. A self-centered mindset operates totally in regard to what pleases the self in the present. It will take from other self centered mindsets to justify the self as resonating reason.

The mind is our processing center. Paul is a primary example of a brilliantly operative mind taking a religious thinking structure and using it to justify his superiority. But he found out that there was more and that more was Jesus. What he couldn't resolve with his mind he buried in his heart and spirit, denying their function, venting his frustration in anger and persecution of Jesus' believers.

He discovered something cataclysmic on the road to Damascus, actually three things.

First, he had a direct confrontation with the risen Jesus that jarred him to the roots. Everything he believed was challenged in a moment of blazing light. He had to cope with the reality of Jesus. It was just impossible. He found he had a mind problem.

Second, he became aware of an internal conflict. He was consumed with anger and hostility. The good that he wanted to do he couldn't. He found he had a heart problem.

Third, the evil he hated he found himself doing. Paul had reached an internal dead end. He discovered the spiritual reality of sin. He found he had a spirit problem.

Those problems are in everyone and only a spiritual mindset can open the door to a heart and spirit recovery. When we want to change from what drives our self destructive behavior to “getting a hold of ourselves” it begins with the mind (Be transformed by the renewal of your mind. Rom.12:2). The word is not 'change' or 'getting better' as though we have can do it on our own. It takes a complete overhaul. The goal is transformation beginning with the renewal of the mind. It's spiritual transformity as opposed to world conformity. We are trans (crossing over) to a new mindset (formation), a new worldview that gives us a balance of mind, heart and spirit. That new mindset is in Jesus Christ as we open our mind to Him through His Word.

Mind is basic. Consider the way we use our language in regard to the mind. ‘Hold that thought’ ‘Keep in mind’ ‘Bear in mind’ ‘He’s out of his mind’ ‘Mind what you say’ ‘I’ve got to think it out’ ‘It isn’t logical’ ‘Give me a reason not to’ ‘The mind does funny things’ ‘It blows my mind’ ‘I wonder what’s on his mind?’ ‘I’m not a mind reader' 'Mind your manners' 'I've got a mind to tell him off' are just a few expressions that we use to explain that thinking process in our brain. Our mind is the inner factory producing ideas, reasons and conclusions. It is where we ponder, reason, realize and deliberate. When we do anything we are quick to rationalize our conclusions and justify our resulting behavior, ‘This is why I thought that'…'this is why I did that.’

Therefore, the real need of the mind is to arrive at some basic truth, some basic principles, some logical reasons, that we can believe in to process life and act it out with confidence. We just have to admit that without something really solid we can believe in, life, daily living, is just a matter of survival. Without belief the mind does not function. That's precisely why God has provided the Scripture. It is our mind manual.

The mind was made to believe. Even so called non-believers believe. They may not believe in what we believe but they believe. Atheists believe in not believing in God. Agnostics believe in saying ‘I just don’t know.’ People who avoid or just plain deny the need to believe anything believe in denial and avoidance. Human beings were just simply made to believe. They are just ‘running away’ from truth. Scripture holds that truth.

This brings us to getting people to see the need to face not only what they believe but also asking them, ‘Is what you believe working?’ 'Is it giving you security of thought, a sense of confident identity and a patient stability in relationships?’ ‘Do you feel the need to win arguments, defend yourself in the face of unwarranted criticism, do you have a snappy temper and do you constantly find yourself adjusting to the attitudes and opinions of others in order to ‘fit in’? 'Is your life really productive?'

All of the foregoing are processed in the mind. Of course it ends up influencing the heart and the spirit but what you think is based on what you believe and what you believe is who you really are. If you are conforming to world standards I guarantee you are being driven by the spirit of fear. Fear in the heart drives our spirit into cave of non-action and withdrawal. That is precisely why we who believe in Jesus need to demonstrate the patience, prayer and perseverance necessary to reach the minds of those who avoid or deny Him.

The way a non-believer usually rationalizes not believing in Jesus is to argue the usual suspects; hypocrisy of Christian leaders and their followers, existence of suffering, ‘religion causes all the wars,’ ‘I tried it and it doesn’t work,’ ‘everyone has his own truth,’ ‘death is the end’ and ‘we’re all going to the same place anyway.’ But these are just ploys a non-believing mind wants to sidetrack you with. They want to argue to get you angry in order to prove that what you believe is not worth anything. Accusations about self righteousness and judgmentalism are designed to get us angry. Avoid anger. Anger proves them right. This is one strategy they use to run from the truth.

It is what their run-away mind relies on, believes, escapes to, that is the essence of their denial and avoidance. What they don’t want is to face the real issue and that is the person of Jesus Christ, who He is and what He says. To face Him is to face what they are avoiding and that is spiritual reality. It is getting them to see Him as the face of spiritual truth as opposed to what they are presently concluding and believing. Our task is to get people to think spiritually.

Paul got it right when he said, “Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you (Romans 12:2 The Message Bible).”