Where the Mind and Heart Wander
I entered the recording studio, eager to begin work on the pilot episode of a series to help teens enter the high school years. I walked up to the engineer, but he paid me little attention. He was staring at the ceiling, his mind somewhere else. I asked, “What are you thinking about?” he said, “Tubes.” Tubes? Like inner tubes for floating on a river? Playground slides? T-shirt cannons? No, like “vacuum tubes” that go in old electronics to make them work. It was his personal obsession and hobby to collect and make use of high quality tubes, which he believed created a superior sound in a guitar amp.
I guess everyone has their thing – the thing that fills their thoughts when there’s nothing actively capturing their attention – the thing your mind wanders to when you let it run free. The thing you love to think about when you have a few minutes in between the things you know you have to do. For you it might be tubes or knitting or softball or cooking or baseball cards, or… books.
Colossians 3:2-3, our memory verse for September says “Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” I don’t think it’s wrong to have a mind obsessed with some hobby or activity that gives you joy (mine is cycling… and also books). I also appreciate the message of Colossians to “set your mind” on things above. My mind may naturally wander toward dreaming about a new bike technology, but I also need to be intentional to set my mind on eternal things. That’s why we focus on memorizing Scripture as a church, to fill our hearts and minds with things from above.
Last Sunday we looked at some of the glorious realities of salvation that appear in chapter one of First Peter. This Sunday we will look at Peter’s encouragement to focus our minds on Christ, to set our minds intentionally on His grace. As our minds and hearts are transformed, our actions follow, and others see our living hope in Christ and want to know more about the peace we have in Him. May Jesus work through each of us to reach the South End of Louisville!