Sunday Night

Do you ever look back at events in your life and think, what was I thinking? Sure, we all do for those distant past events, but I'm talking about events of three weeks ago, or three months ago?

We like to think that we are completely in charge of our lives, mature enough to make the right decision with reasonable consistency, only to discover that in reality, we are not. It has nothing to do with maturity, really, it's our inability to chose with the mind of Christ working within us. I find that when I ask myself "what was I thinking?" the answer is, "YOU were thinking."

Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating that we should all make the decision of green cookie or red cookie, or this hallway, or that staircase with the mind of Christ, but there are certainly enough situations where the mind of Christ is the best we can use to stay out of trouble. It is the decisions we make involving other people that require the mind of Christ. How will I respond to this situation? How should I represent myself to these people? What is the most compassionate way to behave in this situation? All of those questions require...nay, demand, the mind of Christ.

As much as I love to talk about keeping the mind of Christ within us by merely keeping Christ in mind, I fail to do it about 40% of the time. That's a pretty high percentage for someone who is supposed to be making progress in the spiritual life. Yet, as a friend today said, "we peel back false self, and we will never finish, because there is always more." Another way of saying that is we sin, and sin again, because we are human and fragile creatures. The best we can do is aim at a higher rate than 40% remembering to keep the mind of Christ in my mind.