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| Follow this link for a fascinating article on brain communication WITHOUT synapse! http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2009/10/29-02.html |
So how do we put this psychology of salvation to work for
us? Being careful to remember that we can’t save ourselves, the Sanctuary does
provide many encouraging images of what happens in our head, heart, and body
along this twisted and dusty road we travel. Here’s one such encouragement.
I’ve been asking God to show me His beauty in familiar
passages of Scripture which are now seen afresh through the Sanctuary model. During
my run yesterday I was praying and working on Scripture memorization, and in
less than two strides I found myself in the middle of a lascivious thought. I cried
out in agony, “Oh Lord! I am no longer amused nor entertained by such thoughts.
Why do they keep coming back? When will You liberate me? I’m more than eager to
have them permanently gone.”
What followed was not a great answer to the whole sin problem,
but it did provide some insight into these drive-by temptations. First, I
remembered what Roland Hegsted said in an Auburn campmeeting address back in
the 1980s. It offered some very rational encouragement back then. He said he
had been gifted with a creative mind. It is constantly at work, and he can’t
predict what it will spin out next. Even in the middle of church or the middle
of a prayer, his mind will grab a word or a gesture and run with it, creating
all kinds of potential spin-offs. While some of them are helpful, even
publishable, some of them are inappropriate — immoral and repugnant.
He used to be horribly discouraged by this, but then learned
to chalk it up to his fertile imagination and creative energy. He came to see
that he had no control over what would pop to mind in the next instant, but he did
have total control over what he would dwell on. This was a comforting thought
to me back then since my mind works the same. But yesterday it took on a new
depth as I pondered a familiar Bible passage in the light of the Sanctuary.
Remember that the Holy Place, our inner life where the Holy
Spirit illuminates and educates us, is internally decorated with beautifully
embroidered curtains. It is a safe place conducive to a focus on themes
eternal. But we can be enticed to part the curtain and look back at life
outside the veil. Despite the beauty of the spiritual life, our former life
still beckons us, and we find ourselves responding before we realize it.
So what to do? Can we block the video feed from crazy
creative brains? To do that would either be impossible or would require some
kind of lobotomy or eye extraction from which we would not recover, and by
which even our spiritual life would be crippled. Yes, Jesus said, “If your eye
offends you, pluck it out.” But He also said that we were to live in this world
(presumably with all our faculties in full health) but not join in the pursuits
of the world.
Well, I found this encouraging bridge between Hegsted and
the Sanctuary in James 1:12-15. Notice the theme of our active engagement in
the process of salvation (a Holy Place effort), but pay special attention to the
matter of temptation.
Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has
stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to
those who love him. When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For
God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is
tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then,
after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is
full-grown, gives birth to death.
It suddenly clicked for me: our minds are still composed of
all the elements and habits of this world. Yes, we are longing to “be
transformed by the renewing of [our] mind” (Romans 12:2), but we still have the
basic equipment, that “old man” Paul talks about. Our own minds are one more
part of the scenery in our lives and there is some pretty deeply etched
graffiti in our brains. But more than that, our minds actively invent and
create, churning out thoughts constantly. Just like a good brainstorming
session, our brains produce copiously and leave it to us to sort the gold from
the garbage.
Some of the garbage is not enticing to us, and some is
nearly irresistible. Here’s an example. Sometimes I think of song lyrics and
this morning I was humming “in celestial like strains it unceasingly falls o’er
my soul like an infinite gong.” (I know, the word is “calm.” I just looked it
up! But all these years I thought it was “gong!” I used to think, “That’s not
too restful-sounding, but a gong does reverberate for a long time. Oh well.”)
Anyway, due to my (until this very moment) misunderstanding,
that song often came off as “o’er my soul like an infinite bong.” My brain just
kept making the joke all by itself. I would laugh an annoyed little “Harrumph”,
and go back to correct the word in my mind. That’s because the drug culture
doesn’t live in my bones. For some of my friends, the word “bong” would have
sent them into shivers of desire for the chemical they have sworn off. For them,
this little wordplay would have been horribly upsetting, because of its
visceral enticement. It would have caused them to question their level of
commitment, or to pray “Oh Lord! How long till I am free of these old desires?”
See the difference? For me, that little wordplay triggers
nothing but annoyance. So it’s not the wordplay that is the problem. The
problem arises because of what is lying half-dormant in the soul.
That old
appetite gets aroused from its rest deep in the soul of the former cannabis
user. It responds to stimuli no matter where they come from. I have other
appetites and memories; they get triggered by other spontaneously generated
images. Those images would be a mere annoyance to someone else, but they awaken
the beasts I have to subdue. So I cry out, “Oh Lord! How long?”
This is what James is talking about. We are in the Holy
Place (our inner life) where the Spirit is ministering to us, and suddenly we
are dragged away and enticed! (How rude!) It may have been an irreverent
wordplay that distracted our attention, but when it finds an echo of desire
welling up from our fallen past then the enticement begins.
Fortunately, at the very point where desire kicks in, so
does our awareness of it. So we get to play gatekeeper to our continual
thinking. Like a roving dog our creative mind sniffs out anything, but like a
landowner with a shred of self-respect, we get to sort out what stays on our
property.
In short, our creative mind generates many thoughts without
pre-judging their value. When it strikes on an image that arouses an evil
desire, then we feel the enticement and have to battle the beast in us.
There
is no harm in the thousands of unusual thoughts, but there is great harm in
treating them all with continued interest. Some are to be welcomed, mulled
over, maybe even published. Many more are to be recognized for the unhealthy allurement
they offer and then kicked off the property.
Ironically, unlike your sneaky roving dog, the best way to
keep the beast from frolicking on your lawn is to pay it no mind. “Turn your
eyes upon Jesus…”
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