At the end of each term
in the ancient and venerable school I attended, a tradition was kept
up. The head boy would come out to the front during the final
assembly of the term. In clipped, cultured, well-bred tones, he would
recite a Bible passage. It never varied. It was this one from Paul’s
letter to the Philippians:
Rejoice in the Lord
alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto
all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing; but in every
thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests
be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all
understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
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. 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
(Philippians 4:4-9 KJV).
Having a rather lazy
imagination, it took me a long time to start wondering why this
reading kept coming up. Why the same one at the end of each term? I
believe there was a strategy behind it.
During term time, the
school had the bodies and minds of us lads under control for the best
part of six days every week. If there weren’t lessons, there were
sports, homework and other activities. What free time we enjoyed
tended to happen by accident rather than by design! Traditional
educational wisdom had it that, literally, the devil found work for
idle hands to do. Letting boys loaf around was a recipe for moral
decline. But, of course, the school had no control over what we
thought and did in the long holiday weeks. So it would do the best it
could – send us away with an improving pep talk from the Bible,
that hallowed repository of wisdom which was then central to school
assemblies every day.
“... 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 ... think on these things.”
These are far more wholesome topics to fill your mind with than most
of the fare that is served up to us in today’s media. What a
difference it would make if people actively sought these out!
Without doubt your
thought life is an important determining factor for your character. I
mentioned last time a form of therapy, popular today, that seeks to
change the way clients think about themselves and their situations.
Cognitive-behavioural therapy is used to treat many forms of anxiety
and depression. Negative thoughts can lead to low self-esteem or fear
of making wrong choices. When the client is trained to replace these
with can-do, positive thoughts, a surge of constructive energy can
occur. The client grows in confidence with each small step.
Counsellors caution
that cognitive-behavioural therapy is not without drawbacks and
cannot fully replace other, more traditional methods. But this
approach is undoubtedly attractive because, at its most successful,
it can achieve measurable progress in a relatively short time,
thereby saving money and minimising lost productivity.
Yet still more
important is the way it chimes in with what the Bible says. The
ancient world produced a pagan mindset that could be spiritually
devastating. I well remember being brought face to face with the
lurid, degraded religious culture of ancient Ephesus with its
many-breasted goddess Artemis. The cult of the goddess spawned a
seedy tourist souvenir industry which still persists today. But the
Bible encourages us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.
“I appeal to you
therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as
a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your
spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may
discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and
perfect” (Romans 12:1-2 ESV). Thus the apostle Paul writes to the
Roman Christians. He appeals by the mercies of God – Jesus’ total
self-sacrifice on the cross for the rescue of sinners. He argues that
this calls for our total commitment of body and mind.
What a challenge –
but how good and wholesome it can be if our minds are totally focused
on this, the best of all good news!
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