BEING HONEST ABOUT BOOKS, THE MIND AND SIN

Please don't laugh at the title of this post. I had several topics I wanted to write about and decided to condense them all into one post. I really wish I could write more but I just haven't been able to prioritize it. Maybe scheduling it into my week would help. I have lots of time this weekend because I'm on a sort of mini vacation up in Indiana. My husband's brother and his wife had their first baby three weeks ago and I decided I had to fly up here and help out. It's been great to hold a newborn again and I hope I've been an encouragement to my sister-in-law. I remember what it was like those first weeks as a first time mom. I'll try to post a picture when I get back.

So...being honest about books. I have confessed before that I am terrible about finishing books. I am constantly buying books while I haven't finished the ones I'm reading. I'm always going from one book to another. Sometimes I'll come across an easy fiction book and will just devour it. I recently did that with my son. We read through all the Lemony Snicket books in about a month. That was fun. I also did it last year with all the Anne of Green Gables books. But I'm still trying to get through 1776 by David McCullough. Last summer I bought all the Case for Christ, Case for a Creator, etc. books by Lee Strobel, Augustine's Confessions, Resurrection by Hank Hannegraff and Bible Doctrine by Wayne Grudem. I haven't read those either. Meanwhile, I got two very meaty books for Christmas. One is Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards and the other is The Death of Death by John Owen. I think I need to have a reading plan. I don't want to be too ambitious, I just want to get through one book this year! So I'm thinking of committing to finishing one book per month. I'm not committing to not buying any more books though. Heck, I just went to Barnes and Noble this afternoon. Guess what? I bought a book.

The events I wrote about in my last post have made me think more and more about the power of the mind. I am constantly underestimating my mind's ability to absorb things, good or bad. It's very easy to have our thinking corrupted. But I continue to believe certain lies about my ability to handle certain things. I think I can watch certain TV shows and not be affected. I can listen to certain radio personalities and not adopt their cynicism. I need to take seriously God's admonitions in Scripture about the mind. My mind needs to be constantly renewed. I can't coast in this area for what goes into my mind trickles down to my heart. Transformation comes through the renewing of the mind. What happens if I do nothing? There is no cruise control for the mind, no auto-pilot. The opposite of transformation is stagnation or degradation. So there needs to be a constant awareness of my thought life. What am I allowing in there and how am I being proactive in filling it with the right things?

Here's a provocative question -- how honest should we be with others about our sin? We shouldn't always put on a mask and pretend everything is fine but is there an opposite pitfall of being too honest? I've been thinking about this after listening to one of Piper's messages on Romans 7. In reference to Paul's exclamation, "Wretched man that I am, who will save me from this body of death," Piper laments that the church is too superficial and we're not honest with one another about how we struggle. He says that if we were truly honest with our spouses, our children and our fellow believers about our struggles with sin, it would transform our relationships. I think this is true, but I also think there should be a balance. Our children should see us repenting and asking forgiveness when appropriate. We should be quick to admit our sins before our spouses. And we shouldn't pretend we have it all together in front of our friends. But is there also a risk in being too honest? I'm not sure but I've been thinking about it.

One final comment - do you realize what a fantastic resource youtube is? At no expense I can watch Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream Speech" with my children during homeschool and then later I can watch old video of the 1992 Olympics when Paul Wylie won an improbable silver medal. Isn't that cool!

MORE HONORABLE

I like to figure things out. I like to analyze situations in order to find the why behind the what. The question is - is that always possible and does it always honor God? The Lord recently used a situation in my life to teach me the answer to that question. Something I had convinced myself was true turned out not to be and I was left with the same denied desire and the same nagging question, but now intensified - What's going on God? Why? What am I going to do? It seemed there were only two options - descend into melancholy self-pity and indulge in a good cry or try to analyze the situation and figure out what God was doing. As I stood there wondering what to do another option was presented to me by that still, small Voice. Faith. I suddenly pictured Mary and remembered her response to the angel Gabriel's pronouncement - "Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word." It is more honorable to accept the will of the Lord with utmost faith and trust than to figure it out.

Since that day, only a couple weeks ago, I've been thinking more about people in the Bible who exemplified the faith of Mary and, on the contrary, people who tried to figure things out. The first place I went was the book of Job. Job started out with courageous faith - "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord," and was praised for it. But his friends were the ones trying to analyze the situation. They were not praised (see Job 42). Then I thought of Abraham and the others who are praised for their faith in Hebrews 11. Abraham offered up Isaac without trying to figure out why. Joseph didn't try to figure out what God was doing when he was sold into slavery in Egypt. He trusted God. Joshua and the Israelites marched around Jericho as God had instructed without trying to analyze the situation first. There are many others. Reflecting on these examples makes me ashamed for my lack of faith. The truth is that I'd rather figure everything out and have everything neatly categorized than simply trust and believe. This is a good lesson and one that I need to continue studying because at the heart of this lesson are some similar questions - "Do I really believe in the unconditional love and acceptance of God? Do I really trust Him? Do I trust Him enough to surrender control and my supposed right to know what He's doing?"