Minding Our Minds

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This weekend my long-term girlfriend-club gathered in Michigan for our bi-annual hiatus from real life. In decades past, the M&Ms met monthly in the Chicago suburbs, but in the last 5 years it’s become more difficult to find monthly dates that would work with busy schedules.

We finally settled on two “retreats” each year, both in Michigan. That’s a boon for me, since the rest of them still live in Illinois. But they willingly bear the expense and commitment of a 200 mile round trip in order to spend 24 hours together twice a year.

M and Ms.

Sometimes we find a quiet place to have a prayer time, but whether or not that happens, increasingly we end up talking on spiritual topics. That’s because our personal commitments to Christ are the glue that has held us together all these years, and that same glue promises to bind us throughout eternity.

In any given year we don’t get to spend much time together, what with diverse travel schedules, grandmothering responsibilities, active careers, and volunteer hours, but nothing can take away the sense of togetherness we share that’s outside of time and space. That’s made possible by our God who lives outside of those realms and sometimes invites us to join him there. For example, in prayer.

Figuratively, the M&Ms meet in the Lord’s throne room whenever we approach him in conversation, and if the requests we bring are about each other, we like to think of ourselves as being in there together, with him and with each other.

A man named John Fawcett said it well in a hymn:

Blest be the tie that binds

Our hearts in Christian love;

The fellowship of kindred minds

Is like to that above.

 

The M&M women have a “fellowship of kindred minds.” The word “fellowship” means shared mutual interests and experiences in relationships of trust. “Kindred” refers to a person’s family or relatives collectively, and the 7 of us certainly do feel like family members who can be trusted. So… “the fellowship of kindred minds” describes what the M&Ms have. As the old hymn says, the tie that binds our hearts is Christian love.

Sparkling halo

All of this may sound weighty and overly religious, but lest you think there was any halo-polishing in my Michigan cottage this weekend, know that we also played the word-game “Catch Phrase” from 10:00 pm until 1:20 am, laughing ourselves into laryngitis and bellyaches. Though our minds are tied together in Christ, those same minds can also get good-and-goofy, too.

 

“God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord… that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.” (1 Corinthians 1:9-10)

Everything We Need

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We often hear Christians say, “God provides for my every need.” How can this be true when we see so much that’s still wrong in this world like poverty, abuse, and orphaned children? What about terminal disease?

Although these questions seem logical, maybe they’re the wrong ones. It might be better to say, “Can we point to situations where compassionate people are helping the poor? Do we see God placing orphaned children into families? Are there avenues of support for people fighting illnesses?”

The answers ought to be rooted in the good deeds of those who want to please God and people at the same time. And isn’t that the definition of godliness?

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Waterford bowl

More than 20 years ago, Nate gave me a beautiful Waterford crystal bowl. It came in a velvet-lined box and included a small booklet explaining the symbols cut into the glass. I don’t know if the Waterford people meant for this piece to be a lesson in godliness, but it certainly could be.

Although the explanatory booklet is long gone and neither the Waterford web site nor my Facebook friends could help me interpret the symbols, here’s one set of possibilities:

  • The heart = God is love (1 John 4:8)
  • The dove = the Holy Spirit (John 1:32)
  • The sun = Jesus, the Sun of Righteousness (Malachi 4:2)
  • The wheat = prosperity (Psalm 147:13-15)
  • The bow = God’s promises kept (Isaiah 14:24)

The heartThe dove

A second option might be to associate the symbols with our basic human needs:

The sun

The wheat

 

 

 

The bow

  • The bundle of wheat could represent food.
  • The sun might signify the warmth of hearth and home.
  • The heart could be the love that all people crave.
  • The dove might indicate our need for inner peace in the midst of tumultuous circumstances.
  • The bow could symbolize the gift of life itself, since the other 4 items tie together to keep us alive.

Maybe the bow simply represents generosity. When I use this pretty piece, I always think of my generous husband. He knew I loved glass and made a point to give it to me, but despite the crystal being beautiful to look at, it’s good in another way, too. If I let its symbols nudge me into the godly behavior of reaching out to meet the basic needs of someone else, it can become much more than just a pretty gift.

“Godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” (1 Timothy 4:8)

In the Face of Suffering

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Most of today’s news reports included breaking details of the Boston bombings. One interview I heard featured a psychologist named Jeff Greenberg whose specialty is studying people who’ve been forced (by events) to face their own mortality. It might be a terminal disease or something like the 9/11 attacks… or the bombs at Monday’s Boston Marathon.

This morning he said, “When these things happen, it reminds you of the fragility of life, and that death is something that can happen very suddenly and unexpectedly.”

Boston Marathon bomb

He detailed specific, predictable thought patterns people have as they try to cope with what just happened. One of the first things everybody thinks is, “How vulnerable am I?” This goes for those in the Boston area as well as the rest of us who’ve been following them on national news.

Immediately after the question about vulnerability, Mr. Greenberg says we move into firm mental denial: “Most likely I’m safe.”

We might begin blanketing our heightened concerns with a new level of attempted control: locking our doors more carefully, driving with greater care, avoiding crowds, gathering supplies for emergencies. By putting safety measures in place, we’re trying to make sure nothing unexpected gets to us. We think, “Because I’m proactive, I’ll always be safe.”

In the light of day and with intelligent thought, however, we know this isn’t true. None of us are immune to adversity.

This morning I also heard the story of two brothers and their friend, a trio of pals waiting together near the marathon finish line. After the explosions, the brothers had each lost one leg, and their friend had lost both. Their anguish must have been crushing, and the agonies ahead for all three of them can’t even be estimated.

Yet as the newscaster reported, once these young men were in the hospital, they were far more concerned about the welfare of each other than themselves. During the weeks and months to come, they’ll be cheering each other on while trying to share the burdens of their buddies, rejoicing together at every recovery milestone. Their futures will be different from their pasts, but the prognosis for all three is bright, partly because they have each other.

God wants to partner that same way with every person injured during the bombings. He offers himself as encourager, sustainer, leader, and friend. His desire is to “stick closer than a brother.” (Proverbs 18:24) Not one of those injured on Monday needs to suffer through recovery alone after an offer like that.

Honoring the victimsJeff Greenberg described how people become newly sensitive to their belief systems whenever they “look death in the face.” Monday’s bombings are another reminder, he says, that death is coming, and there’s no way around it.

Because of that, isn’t this the perfect time to say yes to God?

“After you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.” (1 Peter 5:10)