Unit 2: Making a list...checking it twice

I'm a list-maker. I make a list before I go to the grocery store. Before I do that, I make a list of my menus for the week, so I'll know what goes on the grocery store list. I make a to-do list when I drive into town...lest I forget what I came for when I arrive there. Maybe the older you get, the more you need these lists.

Anyway, our study group was tasked with making a list this past week. It was a list of our desires and wants. Seems easy enough, but to tell the truth, we all found it difficult. First of all was the decision of what goes on this list. Lofty ideals, or petty wants or both. And what constitutes a petty want? The fact that I want to be able to visit my children in Honduras, New Jersey, and Tennessee doesn't seem all that petty to me. Seems rather noble. And so, the issue presents itself. In this list-making exercise, we had to be brutally honest and then examine the list to see if any items were in conflict. This to me was the hard part, the point being that often times our spiritual desires and our physical desires clash. Sometimes they don't, but I suspect if we are being honest we will find some that do. The eye-opening part of this to me was that I didn't realize that some of my desires and wants were in conflict. They all seemed perfectly legit to me. I had to really examine them closely and we don't often take the time to do that.

Relating this to the mind of Christ works like this. Christ was man and Christ was God. I don't think for a minute that he had a "God-mind" and a "human-mind". I think he had a fully integrated mind that operated without the dissonance between the spiritual and the physical. This produced a great peacefulness within him. I remember a time in the garden when he was under great stress, where he really felt the strain of fear pulling at what he knew to be his fate. I believe he could have backed out. I don't guess he was so peaceful at that point. But, when he remembered his focus and then acted on that focus, I think his peacefulness was restored.

I challenge you to make a list. If not written down, at least in your head. Think about what you really want. Then see if it all fits together like it should. It's one more little step toward developing the mind of Christ.