I plan to spend November sharing a random assortment of things I am thankful for. Today, I want to tell you a little story.

Once upon a time, there was a girl whose parents insisted she go to bed at a reasonable hour, even though she wasn’t sleepy. So she would dream up elaborate stories to occupy her time. As a general rule, she was the heroine of the tales. There was a long stretch where she was a famous teenage spy. Then several years where she was a cancer curing doctor. And of course, a ridiculous number of stories where she wound up married to a wealthy man and had servants and jetted around the world to attend opening night at the opera.

The girl never told anyone these stories because she thought there was something wrong with her. She tried to stop herself but sooner or later, another story would emerge.

Then one day, the girl (who was now quite grown up) wondered what would happen if she tried to write the story down. How hard could it be? The story in her head would make a great book. The kind of book she would like to read.

So she did.

But she didn’t tell anyone. Except her very own Prince Charming who didn’t think she was crazy and encouraged her to finish the tale. When she typed “The End” she realized she had a choice. Keep the secret, or share it.

The girl was afraid. Afraid people would laugh. Afraid people would think she was crazy. After all, Prince Charming was biased so she couldn’t assume others would share his opinion.

The girl chose to share. First with her sister. Then her parents. Then a few friends. And to her relief, they didn’t just like it. They loved it.

So she took a class.

Then signed up for a writers conference.

And that’s when things got really interesting. Because two people who did not know her at all emailed her and said, “Hey, you’re a writer. We’re writers. Come hang out with us.”

The girl was afraid. What if they didn’t like her? Or worse, what if they didn’t like her writing? (Which is not the same thing, but feels like it is). The girl didn’t think of herself as a writer, but she wanted to. So she went to meet the writers.

And the rest . . . well, the rest is unfolding right before your eyes. Edie Melson (@EdieMelson) and Vonda Skelton (@VondaSkelton) welcomed the girl into their circle of writers. They encouraged, instructed, and critiqued. They introduced the girl to other writers. And they continue to remind her that successful writers write and some of them get published. And while she may be a little wierd, there’s nothing wrong with her that isn’t wrong with them, too.

You may be wondering why I chose to tell that story today and what it has to do with thankfulness.

Today, as I do every first Thursday of the month, I have a guest post on Edie’s blog, The Write Conversation. Later this month, I’ll have a guest post on Vonda’s blog, The Christian Writer’s Den. These women have chosen to be encouragers and cheerleaders to a bunch of newbie (and not so newbie) writers. They are some of the busiest women I know, but they make time because they don’t want to see new writers make any of the mistakes they made early in their careers.

Not every new writer manages to fall in with people who only want the best for them.

But this girl did.

And I will forever be thankful.

*************

As we wrap up our 31 day journey, I want to leave you with the words of my favorite disciple.

I Peter 1:13 ~ Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (ESV)

What the ESV translates as “preparing your minds for action” is translated “gird up the loins of your mind” in quite a few other translations. They both mean the same thing, but I have to tell you, I rather like the imagery of “girding up the loins of your mind.” In Biblical times people wore long robes and “girding up your loins” meant to tuck garments up and away from the legs so you’d be free to work, serve, run, or fight.

As we move forward into Thanksgiving and Christmas and a New Year, let’s prepare our minds for whatever action God has for us. As we exercise daily renewing, our minds won’t be so quick to wander off into hopelessness, won’t be consumed by fear, won’t be overwhelmed by a to-do list that never ends.

Instead, we will choose to remember, choose to renew, choose to be still and know, and choose to set our hope on the plentiful grace that is ours – now and for all eternity.

*******

When I started this series a month ago, I was worried that I might run out of topics. To my surprise, I have a list of verses and themes that I didn’t have time to touch. So this topic may reappear from time to time in various “Mindful Mondays” posts. After all, renewing isn’t just a 31 day process…it’s the journey of a lifetime.

If you’ve enjoyed this series, I hope you’ll continue to follow along as I switch gears and resume my regular blogging schedule. I’ll be focusing on giving thanks in November. Please join me!

Grace and peace,
Lynn

Psalm 46:10a ~ Be still, and know that I am God. (ESV)

The Hebrew word translated here as “be still” is “raphah” and oh how I love the meaning…it means “sink, relax.”

So today, sink into Him. Relax into His embrace.

Know that He is God.

And be renewed.

Mark 12:29-31 ~ Jesus answered, The most important is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. (ESV)

Have you ever heard this said about anyone? “He’s so heavenly minded he’s no earthly good.”

Yeah. Me neither.

For most of us, that saying would be better reversed . . . She’s so earthly minded she’s no heavenly good.

Ouch.

Renewing our minds is not just an exercise in logic or reasoning or discipline. A mind that is truly renewed will start giving you some radical assignments.

  • Maybe you should go on that short-term mission trip.
  • Maybe you should help out at the homeless shelter.
  • Maybe you should give more of that money (that you now realize isn’t actually yours) to further God’s Kingdom.
  • Maybe you should ask your – friend, parent, sibling, spouse, coworker – for forgiveness.
  • Maybe you should invite your neighbors over for dinner and get to know them.

As we discussed several weeks ago, this isn’t about adding to your to-do list. This is about re-purposing your to-do list.

On the heels of telling us to love God with everything we have, Jesus follows with “and love your neighbor as yourself” and tells us there are no commandments greater.

If I can look across the cul-de-sac and not be moved by the faces I see – faces of people who need Jesus – then I’m not fulfilling this most important command.

Only a mind, continually renewed, will be able to look past the yapping dogs, crowing roosters, too high grass, and annoyingly parked cars, and see a soul beloved of God. A soul Jesus died for. A soul the Holy Spirit may, right now, be softening to the Truth that you have. And you have it ready because you’ve been dwelling on it. And when the Holy Spirit opens the door, you can walk right through it.

As we move forward, we have lots of head knowledge. Maybe you’ve learned something new this month. Maybe you’ve been reminded of things you used to know but had forgotten.

My prayer is that as I (and you!) focus on daily renewing my mind, that it will spill out. That I will splash grace everywhere I go. That I’ll see what God is up to and that I’ll be a willing participant in His plan.

Please, Abba, may it do some good.

Mark 12:30 ~ And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. (ESV)

We’ve come to our final weekend of focusing on renewing. It’s been a fun journey for me. I hope it has been for you as well.

As we wrap up our time on this topic, let’s take a look at what Jesus had to say about our minds.

The religious rulers of that time had taken the laws provided in the Old Testament and expanded upon them. Their “Do and Don’t” list was around 600 items long!

In a few brief words, Jesus took their list and annihilated it. He reminded them of ancient commands found in Deuteronomy and said, “Listen, it’s easy. Love the Lord your God with all you’ve got.” (Lynn’s paraphrase!)

I checked…the word for mind here includes your intellect, imagination, and intent. So we know what we’re talking about.

Or do we?

How on earth do you love God with your mind? Love Him with your heart and soul? Check. We get that. Most of us can play that song on the piano. Love Him with your strength? Well, it’s a little less obvious, but at an intuitive level, we grasp the idea of loving fiercely and with everything that is in us.

But love God with your mind? Minds – brains – intellect – not usually something you think of as loving.

The love commanded here is agape. The kind of love only fully exhibited by God. The kind of love we are called to as believers. The kind of love we are incapable of expressing without the power of the Holy Spirit.

And I found this definition in Strong’s . . . true agapáō (“loving”) is always defined by God – a “discriminating affection which involves choice and selection“. Another definition I found says that it denotes the love of reason.

Loving God is a choice you make with your mind.

I can’t love God with all of my mind if my framework is skewed.

I can’t love God with all of my mind if I’m deceived about what is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise.

I can’t love God with all of my mind if I’ve forgotten who I am, how much it cost to redeem me, and why I’m still here.

When they asked Jesus for the most important commandment, He said love the Lord your God . . . with all your mind.

Renewing matters.

*****
You can read past entries in the 31 Days of Renewing series here.

Isaiah 26:3 ~ You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. (ESV)

Yesterday we unpacked some tough stuff.

It won’t be much easier today.

Sorry.

Please understand that there is nothing I’ve written about in the past month that I feel I have a handle on. And that includes – maybe I should say that is especially true – of today’s subject.

As I pulled this verse apart, looking at the Hebrew meanings of each word, I found another word that I thought I knew the meaning of.

Mind.

Seems straightforward enough, right? After all, that’s what we’ve been studying all month. But the Hebrew word that is translated here as mind has a very interesting definition. Strong’s concordance gives the short definition as “intent” but then further defines the word as . . .

frame, thing framed, imagination, mind, work

I spent a while confused about this, trying to get from frame to imagination. But then an idea started to form. Hebrew scholars might scoff, but this is what I came up with.

All of us have a framework we think from. A world view. Our thoughts and imagination are built on this frame.

And in most cases, our frame is skewed.

Here’s an example…those of us who lived in the United States tend to assume that we have been blessed by God. We are thankful we live where we live, with freedoms, opportunities, clean air, clean water, warm houses, and an ample food supply. We might not say it out loud, but we think these things reveal that God has blessed us. That we are, somehow, favored.

But Christians who have ministered to believers in some of the poorest parts of the world have reported that those believers feel sorry for us. They have nothing. They live in poverty. They live in filth. They suffer daily pain that we wouldn’t tolerate for more than five minutes before we’d popped some Tylenol.

Yet their lives are characterized by joy and they pity us. Why? Because we have so much stuff our minds and hearts are too cluttered to revel in the miracle of Christ in us.

They have nothing. But they have Jesus. And He is everything.

Can you say that? Honestly? Maybe you’re like me. I believe it.

But I don’t live it.

And it made me wonder…

What if the truth is that in the spiritual realm, they are the favored ones?

With less distraction, less stuff, do their frames square more with God? Maybe.

I know that within my twisted framework, my imagination runs wild and I think others have more, are happier, are healthier, are blessed more than I am. And then I sulk because God isn’t giving me what I want.

And I wonder why I have no peace.

There is no hope for skewed frames and unruly imaginations, other than to surrender them to God. In our materialistic and me-centered society, daily renewing of our minds is crucial to bringing our view of the world and our place in it in line with God’s.

How’s your frame today?

Got an imagination that needs a reality check?

Yeah. Me, too.

Isaiah 26:3 ~ You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. (ESV)

Isaiah 26:3 ~ You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. (ESV)

Today, we are diving into the Old Testament for a look at one of my favorite verses. And one that makes a tantalizing promise . . . one I sometimes feel is virtually unattainable.

Perfect peace.

Shalom, a name of God (Hebrew characters). &qu...The Hebrew for “Shalom” (thanks Wikipedia!)Can you even imagine what a life characterized by perfect peace would look like? Does every part of your being long for such an ideal? Mine does.

And it should. Because we were made for perfect peace. Adam and Eve experienced it in the garden and there is a longing, deep within our souls, for what was lost.

The Hebrew word we  translate as “peace” is “shalom.” It looks like this – שָׁלֹ֑ום – and it turns out that in the literal Hebrew, the word “perfect” does not appear in this verse. It actually says “שָׁלֹ֑ום שָׁלֹ֑ום” or “shalom, shalom.” I’m no more a Hebrew scholar than I am a Greek scholar, but according to the commentaries I read, when a word is doubled it is done so for emphasis and to denote the certainty of the word.

Peace upon peace. Double peace. Absolute peace. Oh, yeah. That’s what I want.

I think…

The ESV Study Bible says that shalom…

“had a much richer connotation than the English word does since in conveyed not merely the absence of conflict but also the notion of positive blessing, especially in terms of a right relationship with God, and also, as a result, the idea that “all is well” in one’s life. This may be manifested most clearly amid persecution and tribulation.”

Insert screeching tire sounds here!

Wait just a minute. Shalom is manifested most clearly amid persecution and tribulation? That’s not what I think of when I think of peace.

Which brings us back to our minds. As we’ve been studying, we need to constantly be in the process of renewing our minds. One way to do that is to think about truth. To focus on the Truth even what is true in our lives stinks.

We believe the Bible is true and this verse promises “perfect peace” to the one who can keep his mind “stayed” on God.

Sounds like a lot of hard work, doesn’t it?

I thought so, until I looked up the word for “stayed”. Guess what it means in Hebrew?

To lean, lay, rest

Resting, leaning – those things don’t require more work.

They require surrender.

The mind resting in full surrender on God – His truth, His will, His love, His plan – will know that all is well in their world, despite tribulation and suffering.

I don’t know about you, but this is a lot for me to get my mind around. Let’s talk about it more tomorrow.

***************

Today’s post made me think of the hymn Like a River Glorious by Frances Ridley Havergal. I’ve included Verse 3 and the chorus for you to ponder.

Verse 3

Ev’ry joy or trial
Falleth from above,
Traced upon our dial
By the Sun of Love;
We may trust Him fully
All for us to do
They who trust Him wholly
Find Him wholly true.

Chorus:

Stayed upon Jehovah,
Hearts are fully blest
Finding, as He promised,
Perfect peace and rest.

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Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. ~ Philippians 4:8 (ESV)

We’ve spent the past several weeks taking this verse apart, almost word for word. Have you noticed how the ideas build on each other? If you don’t know what’s true, then how will you know what’s honorable? If you aren’t thinking of things that are pure, will you notice the things that are excellent?

While we’ve taken the time to focus on each word, I don’t think Paul ever intended for this to be an exhaustive list. He pointed out the biggies, and then threw in a catch all . . . if there’s anything worthy of praise, think about that stuff, too. (Lynn’s paraphrase!)

I don’t think he wanted to constrain our thinking. I think he wanted to encourage us to open our minds to all that is wonderful and good in this world.

We don’t need help seeing the bad stuff.

But somehow, especially in our comfortable American culture, we struggle to see the good.
Our minds are so busy, so hectic, so anxious – so oblivious.

There is a whole world of wonder out there. Children see it. They ooh and aah over spider webs, flowers, rocks, dirt, and chipmunks.

But grownups are too busy for that nonsense.

The Greek for “anything worthy of praise” is “Epainos” and it means “approbation, commendation, praise” and carries the idea of “applause.” It can be used to describe praise of men to God, praise of men to men, praise of God to men (think about that for a minute and try not to get goosebumps) and is used to describe things that deserve to be praised.

Could he have left it any more wide-open?

Cheer for your favorite team. Clap after your favorite little person’s recital. Go crazy when your tiny martial artist earns a new belt.

Marvel at the intricate network of purple-blue veins running beneath the clear skin of a newborn. Relish the softness of your favorite blanket. Inhale the French roast or the Earl Grey.

Open your mind.

Pay attention.

And as you start to think about all the things that are worthy of praise, don’t be surprised when your thoughts turn to praising the One who is Worthy.

If there is any excellence . . . think about these things. Phil. 4:8 (ESV)

The Greek word for excellence is “arete” and it is most often defined as “virtuous thoughts feelings, actions; moral excellence and purity.“

My first reaction, when I hear “excellence” is to think of the best of something. The people and things that have achieved the highest levels of success.

And while that is true, there is another definition. One I found far more interesting.

It turns out the the word “arete” could also be used to describe anything in nature that was fulfilling its purpose. A field ripe with grain was excellent. A tree heavy with fruit was excellent. A tool doing its job was excellent.

As I pondered this definition, I realized I need to tweak my idea of excellence.

Ephesians 2:10 tells us that “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (ESV)

If you are fulfilling God’s purposes for your life, then you are living in excellence.

You’ll note I didn’t say if you are “successful” or “famous” or “rich” or “popular.”

It seems to me that the vast majority of people who are fulfilling the call God has on their lives are doing so in virtual obscurity.

Do you remember the photos from yesterday’s post? That red leaf was probably blooming on the trees in my backyard when we moved here several months ago. It spent it’s lifetime shading my home. Maybe it was one of the chorus that waved and sang to me as I found my way to my ugly chair again and again. Then, the chlorophyll faded, the leaf turned loose from the branch, and it floated to rest, nestled against the ferns under my kitchen window, where it once again drew my heart to praise the Creator for His marvelous works.

That leaf is excellent.

The fragile flower didn’t question it’s location when it was time to grow and bloom. It didn’t point out that growing up in the crack of my driveway was a surefire way to a shortened existence. It didn’t argue that if it had only landed a few feet away it probably would have been allowed to live a much longer life. No. It grew. It fulfilled its purpose. And, as the leaf, called out to me, “Lynn, I’m doing my part? Are you doing yours?”

The flower is excellent.

How about you? Have you fallen into the trap of thinking that you aren’t living a life of excellence because you aren’t meeting the world’s definition of ‘success’?

Spend some time today thinking about true excellence . . . and be renewed.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Philippians 4:8 (ESV)

On this beautiful Sunday, take a moment to look at these photos as you reflect on the words of Philippians 4:8.
What do you think they represent? I think they could be considered lovely, maybe pure, or even honorable.
But for me, they represent excellence.

I’ll explain tomorrow.

Grace and peace to each of you.

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