I'm still not as focused as I'd like to be, so I need to apply conscious effort in my thinking. I find this comes to the forefront most acutely when I'm engaged in
an activity that doesn't take my full concentration - especially if that activity
takes hour after hour. Without any prompt, my mind goes from what I meant to think about on to other things. To make the most of my time then, I find it
useful to purpose to occupy my mind proactively with profitable thoughts. After all, the Word says, "Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of
every opportunity, because the days are evil."
Recently having spent more than two weeks cycling all
day, I chose the other day to consider what my thoughts actually are. In essence, I thought about what I've been
thinking about, as I ride kilometre after kilometre .
I know when I chose to join Love In Motion, I
determined I would spend much of the time praying. After all, the Word says, "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks
in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus."
As I thought about it, I realized that I do
spend some of my time in prayer. I pray
for the missionaries I know, I pray for
the churches I know, the pastors I know, the ministry leaders and elders I
know. I pray for my wife, for my
kids, for my neighbours, for my city and country. For other LIM riders, for my small group and
all manner of people and things. Sometimes I sing in my head. After all, the Word says, "I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise your name
for ever and ever.
Every day I will
praise you and extol your name for ever and ever." Now I'm not very musical, so I only sing in
my head, and I don't do even do that well.
But it helps brighten my day and cheers my mood as I fill my mind with
worship.
Praying and singing sounds great, and I know
that if I could do that during all the time I'm riding, I would be a better
man. I do try, and for part of the time
I succeed. But the more I thought about
it, the more I realized that mostly - for most of my time - my mind just wanders. I dream.
It's not that dreaming is bad in itself. It's a form of thinking, and thinking isn't
bad in itself. Nevertheless, thinking
has to be redeemed. If my thinking is
not sanctified thinking, it is not merely a waste of time, but inappropriate
use of a gift that God has given and so a form of idolatry. It is for that reason that Paul said, "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever
is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." Prayer and worship sanctify my mind - they make
my purposeful thinking holy. But what
then of my dreaming? Can my dreaming be
made holy?
Mark Batterson once said, "At some point, most of us stop living out of
imagination and start living out of memory. Instead of creating the future, we
start repeating the past. Instead of living by faith, we live by logic....As we age,
either imagination overtakes memory or memory overtakes imagination." What he means by that is that our dreams can be,
ought to be, key for us. They can fuel
our prayers and can fuel our lives. If I
spend time dreaming of the day my kids all know and serve the Lord, if I let my
mind wonder about what Christmas will be like then, about what family holidays
will be like then, about family mission trips and all these kinds of things -
why then, it is only natural to pray that into reality. His Kingdom will come, and His will will be
done.
If I dream of the day that my friends are on
fire for Christ's mission, then it's only natural for me to be sensitive to the
Spirit's leading in helping them in that direction.
I can choose to dream of the day that LIM is not
one, but three rides; one family ride
consisting of day or two day events organized by local Alliance churches and
involving their broader communities, one consisting of a 3 or 4 month tour,
cycling only 50-75km a day to allow prayer and healing ministry in every town we stay in, and
one "amazing race" style, where elite teams compete in not only
cycling, but community building events.
All of them fundraising, and not for 3/4 million, but 5 or even 10
million. If I dream of the day the
marginalized and rejected find hope in Christ, find forgiveness in Christ, find
purpose and meaning in Christ, then not only is my participation in Love In
Motion useful, but even the monotonous hours spent cycling are profitable.
My thinking can either be pointless conjecture
and unprofitable sin, or it can be speaking to God and worship. My
dreams can either be mindless wandering and a waste of precious time, or
they can be holy prompts to prayer and action.
The choice is mine to make. May
the Lord grant that even the wandering of my minds be made holy and
useful. Amen.
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