"Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees - I mean, the mismatch between their hearts and lives ... whatever you have said in the darkness will be heard in the light, and whatever you have whispered in the rooms deep inside the house will be announced from the rooftops." Luke 12:1b, 3 (CEB)
Oops. Jesus just called us out on our own arrogance ... thinking that I can think one thing and actually be another. It just doesn't work that way.
Bishop Bill McAlilly recently said in a sermon that it's just not possible to "think your way into a new way of walking. We must walk our way into a new way of thinking." The transformation of our minds, of our thought life is an issue Paul deals with, too: Don't conform to the world's way of doing things (read: being comfortable with mismatched hearts and lives), but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. (Romans 12:2) And, Jesus, challenged those who would/could hear him to love God with all our mind (Matthew 22), not just our heart, soul, and strength as the Shema bids us in Deuteronomy 6. Attitude makes all the difference in the world. And, what is attitude but my thoughts and beliefs about myself, about you, about life, about the world, about God ... ?
The mismatch that Jesus called out was the belief that it's okay to harbor those whispered dark thoughts whether they ever cross our lips or simply jump around the synapses of our brains. He even said, you read it, that those things we whisper to ourselves or to others in the quiet, dark places of our living will be as if they're shouted from the rooftops.
Uh-oh. Most of my thoughts? That's not gonna be a problem. They won't be very interesting; as a matter of fact, the simplicity of them might be frustrating for you, embarrassing for me. But, there are a few. In moments of anger and disappointment, when I don't gee-haw with someone and when I've been hurt, in those moments, my thoughts and sometimes my words ... Well, let's just say I wouldn't want those shouted from the rooftops. My guess is ('cause I've read the book of James), you've got the same problem.
Lord Jesus, it's true that we are what we eat; truer still that we are what we think. But, we fool ourselves into believing that since nobody "heard" that, they'll never know. But, the thought/beliefs/words that roll around in our minds determine our attitude and sometimes those words spill out of our mouths doing even more damage. What's worse, I know that those thoughts and beliefs take root in our hearts. Uproot anything that doesn't match you, Jesus. I don't want to be mismatched in heart and life; I want you to be the center and reflection of all that I think, say, and do! Transform my mind, teach me how to love you with my mind to that end ... that all of who I am matches for the world to see that I belong to you! Let it be so.
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