In the early 1900’s, an obscure writer by the name of James Allen wrote a book entitled “As a Man Thinketh” which has sold millions of copies around the world in five languages. Some go as far as to claim that this book helped spawn the self-improvement industry that was such a large part of the 20th century. Mr. Allen got the inspiration as well as the title for the book from Proverbs 23, verse 7: “as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” The essence of the book’s message can be found in chapter one:
A noble and God-like character is not a thing of favor or chance, but is the natural result of continued effort in right thinking, the effect of long-cherished association with God-like thoughts. An ignoble and bestial character, by the same process, is the result of the continued harboring of groveling thoughts.
You know sometimes I doubt in my heart that I will ever even come close to a noble and God-like character but then other times I feel as if it is the only thing worth striving for. After all God has done for us through the agency of His son, our Lord Jesus Christ, should I do any less?
Well whether I ever attain that for which I seek, I am convinced that the thoughts and ideas that I sow into my heart and life will have a huge effect on the attitudes and behaviors that follow. Due to the weakness of my flesh and the circumstances of life, I am continually being put in situations to make choices to avoid things that are detrimental to my mental health. I'm kind of a like a 'mental health food nut' who doesn't want to poison the ‘body of my mind’ with sugar or coffee or alcohol or fatty foods. Of course, sometimes I slip but for the most part I choose not to indulge myself.
It always seems kind of ironic to me when I encounter people who fully understand the need to take care of their physical body: exercise, massages, healthy diets, etc. but see absolutely no need to care for their soul or mental health through a similar type of regiment. Have you run into this attitude also? People who righteously refuse to drink soda or eat greasy foods but who think nothing about swallowing mega doses of idolatrous philosophy or pornographic songs and images? Ohhhh and it makes me wonder…
Well I've got my own hypocrisy to deal with as well as my own challenges. Sometimes I'm really good at avoiding the bad thoughts, ideas and philosophies but I don't spend a heck of a lot of time sowing good ideas in. I've learned that it takes a proactive stance to be able to truly be "transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Rom 12:2). It doesn't just happen because I keep bad thoughts at bay or don't dabble in porn or listen to hard core sexual music or avoid egregiously ungodly movies, etc. The real treasure lies in being able to control not only of what I don't think about but also what I do think about as well. In other words, to think about what I'm thinking about. I am encouraged by Paul's reflection in Philippians chapter four, verses eight and nine:
8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest , whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. 9 Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.
Think on things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous and worthy of praise. That’s quite a list. Paul sounds a bit like a good moral philosopher doesn’t he? Then he exhorts us to imitate his Christ-like example as well as to do the things which we have been taught in Christ and the God of peace will be with us.
I intuit a major difference between this Biblical exhortation to attain inner peace and some popular Eastern religious ideas that crop up now and again. My experience of the modern Eastern ideas has been that one needs to empty one's mind in order to gain inner peace. In contrast, the Apostle Paul is exhorting us not to empty our minds but rather to purposefully fill them with wholesome thoughts and then to act in a godly way in order to gain inner peace.
Perhaps this is why after a whole generation of Buddhist and Taoist practices and philosophies that have been introduced into our culture and language through pop music, people of influence, metaphysical teachers and new-age disciples we continue to see a rise in the number of FDA approved medicines aimed at reducing stress, acid reflux, heart disease and insomnia. It might be time to try something new and follow a more ancient path to peace. What do you think?
@ 2007 Joseph Ricciardi Jr
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Friday, July 6, 2007
The Dynamics of Being
How difficult I find it to just “be”: to live in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and not be anxious for something to happen. There seem to be forces pulling constantly on my soul to “do more” or to “be more” or to “have more”. I seem at times to be suspended between the planning and the carrying out of the plan.
And whose plan is it anyway? Yours? Mine? Ours? Voices wielding shards of truth which stab at my heart in an attempt to root out apathy. Kind voices, concerned voices, angry voices, impassioned pleas drip off my soul like water after a shower.
Oh wretched man that I am…who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Those were the words of the Apostle Paul when he exposed to us and the “saints at Rome” the struggle with sin he had within himself.
And whose plan is it anyway? Yours? Mine? Ours? Voices wielding shards of truth which stab at my heart in an attempt to root out apathy. Kind voices, concerned voices, angry voices, impassioned pleas drip off my soul like water after a shower.
Oh wretched man that I am…who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Those were the words of the Apostle Paul when he exposed to us and the “saints at Rome” the struggle with sin he had within himself.
For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Who am I that I shouldn’t find those same struggles within myself? Am I greater than Paul? Have I escaped the realities of existence here in the 21st century by way of knowledge or affluence or technology? “Not I”, said the cow with the curly horns who lowed at the babe on Christmas morn. Not I.
Paul’s response to this self-realization?: I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
For Paul it was a recognition that there was no good thing within him but that this new life, this new way of being: life in Christ, delivered him from the bondage of corruption, i.e. sin and death. I am because he (Christ) is. I have because he did. I will be because he has been and will come again. This is the true dynamics of being for a son of God thru Jesus Christ our Lord.
Rejoice my brothers and sisters. Our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Paul’s response to this self-realization?: I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
For Paul it was a recognition that there was no good thing within him but that this new life, this new way of being: life in Christ, delivered him from the bondage of corruption, i.e. sin and death. I am because he (Christ) is. I have because he did. I will be because he has been and will come again. This is the true dynamics of being for a son of God thru Jesus Christ our Lord.
Rejoice my brothers and sisters. Our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
@ 2008 Joseph Ricciardi Jr
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Headstrong and Loving It?
You know when I was a kid I had two very strong attributes: my skull and the hair on top of it.
The hair earned me such inglorious nicknames, among the kind-hearted school children I was privileged to work with on a daily basis, as Brillo, SOS and steel wool. My hair is still pretty thick today, which at almost 50 years old is actually a good thing, although it still won’t get wet when swimming.
My thick skull, on the other hand, is a whole lot thinner (although as Jesus’ experienced firsthand, you can’t go by what your family thinks of you or you’re sunk before you start). And what I found out about myself in this lifelong, thinning process is that there was an inverse relationship between the thickness of my skull and the thinness of my skin. In other words, the more I let others opinions of me enter my “thin skin”, the more “thick skulled” I reacted in my day to day living with those same people.
Today, as one of the founding members of the “Let’s Cover Up our own Weaknesses and Insecurities by Being Angry and Blaming Others for our Unhappiness” club, it’s become exceedingly easy to spot other members. Unfortunately not all members have the awareness that they’re actually in our little club, which isn’t all that little either. Actually I think it’s more like an underground society than a club: nobody wants to admit that they, not others, hold the real key to their own happiness and freedom. Because after all, to borrow loosely from Stan Lee’s Spiderman: “with great freedom comes great responsibility”
I even know some society members personally who go out of their way to cover up their thin skinned membership by pretending that nothing ever bothers them in the least. They don’t need anybody. Man, can I relate to that. I sometimes wonder if God didn’t call me into the body of Christ just so he can point to me and say: “See that fool over there, yeah the one with the steel wool hair, you’re not as big a fool as he was and he’s changing.”
It’s difficult sometimes to see others, especially those you know and love, go down the same dead end roads of pain and loneliness that you hung out on for so long rather than admit that they don’t know it all and they might even be wrong sometimes! As if making mistakes and being wrong is the worst thing in the world. Remember the Pharisees? Jesus said if they had acknowledged their blindness it would be one thing, but they’re blind and trying to make everybody else think that they’ve got 20/20 vision, so Jesus said their darkness is doubly dark. That was me: the blind trying to lead the blind.
I can always tell someone who’s struggling with these issues in their own personal lives because they have no grace or forgiveness for myself or others. When I encounter someone holding a grudge or stuck in unforgiveness, they might have a whole Broadway show choreographed around why they’re justified in treating me or others they way they are but no matter how much the world applauds their little charade, they still have to remove the mask at the end of the day and face the man in the mirror, like the rest of us.
I recently watched this comic-tragedy play out in the marriage of two friends. One just refused to change. The individual felt justified in his/her actions and by God, no one, not even Jesus Christ himself, was going to talk him or her out of their anger. They earned it and they had a right to hate this other brother/sister in Christ. There is something about the marriage struggle that just seems to empower a man or woman to feel justified in our actions: every man is right in his own eyes.
It’s funny how stupid I always felt after the fact when I saw myself for what I was and how I had been acting. Yeah, you can fool most of the people, most of the time but what’s the use of trying?
There’s room at the cross for the thinnest skinned and thickest skulled among us, of which I myself am living proof, because he loves me and you NOT for what we could be, NOT for what we should be, NOT for what our husband wants us to be or what our wife wishes we were but he loves you and me just as we are: heads, hearts, hands and skin.
May we all be blessed with the drenching rain of simplicity, forgiveness, compassion and love towards our fellow men and women: especially they who are of the household of faith.
If it ain’t worth having, it ain’t worth holding on to. Why not lighten your own load today instead of waiting for others to lighten it out for you? All you’ve got to lose is your fat head and a little bit of pain.
The jester remains Headstrong in the faith and Thin Skinned towards evil-doers.
@ 2008 Joseph Ricciardi Jr
The hair earned me such inglorious nicknames, among the kind-hearted school children I was privileged to work with on a daily basis, as Brillo, SOS and steel wool. My hair is still pretty thick today, which at almost 50 years old is actually a good thing, although it still won’t get wet when swimming.
My thick skull, on the other hand, is a whole lot thinner (although as Jesus’ experienced firsthand, you can’t go by what your family thinks of you or you’re sunk before you start). And what I found out about myself in this lifelong, thinning process is that there was an inverse relationship between the thickness of my skull and the thinness of my skin. In other words, the more I let others opinions of me enter my “thin skin”, the more “thick skulled” I reacted in my day to day living with those same people.
Today, as one of the founding members of the “Let’s Cover Up our own Weaknesses and Insecurities by Being Angry and Blaming Others for our Unhappiness” club, it’s become exceedingly easy to spot other members. Unfortunately not all members have the awareness that they’re actually in our little club, which isn’t all that little either. Actually I think it’s more like an underground society than a club: nobody wants to admit that they, not others, hold the real key to their own happiness and freedom. Because after all, to borrow loosely from Stan Lee’s Spiderman: “with great freedom comes great responsibility”
I even know some society members personally who go out of their way to cover up their thin skinned membership by pretending that nothing ever bothers them in the least. They don’t need anybody. Man, can I relate to that. I sometimes wonder if God didn’t call me into the body of Christ just so he can point to me and say: “See that fool over there, yeah the one with the steel wool hair, you’re not as big a fool as he was and he’s changing.”
It’s difficult sometimes to see others, especially those you know and love, go down the same dead end roads of pain and loneliness that you hung out on for so long rather than admit that they don’t know it all and they might even be wrong sometimes! As if making mistakes and being wrong is the worst thing in the world. Remember the Pharisees? Jesus said if they had acknowledged their blindness it would be one thing, but they’re blind and trying to make everybody else think that they’ve got 20/20 vision, so Jesus said their darkness is doubly dark. That was me: the blind trying to lead the blind.
I can always tell someone who’s struggling with these issues in their own personal lives because they have no grace or forgiveness for myself or others. When I encounter someone holding a grudge or stuck in unforgiveness, they might have a whole Broadway show choreographed around why they’re justified in treating me or others they way they are but no matter how much the world applauds their little charade, they still have to remove the mask at the end of the day and face the man in the mirror, like the rest of us.
I recently watched this comic-tragedy play out in the marriage of two friends. One just refused to change. The individual felt justified in his/her actions and by God, no one, not even Jesus Christ himself, was going to talk him or her out of their anger. They earned it and they had a right to hate this other brother/sister in Christ. There is something about the marriage struggle that just seems to empower a man or woman to feel justified in our actions: every man is right in his own eyes.
It’s funny how stupid I always felt after the fact when I saw myself for what I was and how I had been acting. Yeah, you can fool most of the people, most of the time but what’s the use of trying?
There’s room at the cross for the thinnest skinned and thickest skulled among us, of which I myself am living proof, because he loves me and you NOT for what we could be, NOT for what we should be, NOT for what our husband wants us to be or what our wife wishes we were but he loves you and me just as we are: heads, hearts, hands and skin.
May we all be blessed with the drenching rain of simplicity, forgiveness, compassion and love towards our fellow men and women: especially they who are of the household of faith.
If it ain’t worth having, it ain’t worth holding on to. Why not lighten your own load today instead of waiting for others to lighten it out for you? All you’ve got to lose is your fat head and a little bit of pain.
The jester remains Headstrong in the faith and Thin Skinned towards evil-doers.
@ 2008 Joseph Ricciardi Jr
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
