Mindset

Mark 8:33b

“For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."

Mindset

I was at an actual brick and mortar bookstore the other day, and picked up a book of essays by Marilynne Robinson, called “When I was a Child, I Read Books.” Robinson’s writing intrigues me. In her most famous book, "Gilead," I remember at first I worried that it was going to be a little inactive, maybe slow, but then, once I entered in, it ended up taking up residence in my mind and heart. She uses words in a way that feels like music is playing through them. In the book of essays, there’s one about the intersection of imagination and community that met me right where I want to be living. Setting my mind on divine things feels like making space for words that invite me beyond the sometimes-overwhelming problems of any one day.

Our online community, connect.faith was created to be at the intersection point of creativity, spirituality and justice. Those words point me toward setting my mind on divine things – the things that feed my soul with possibilities. It is so easy to stay stuck in the human things, as the passage says. We need the divine things, the larger than our present reality mindset that comes from paying attention to the Spirit of God active in the world. Love, repentance, forgiveness, grace – these words have the power to move in us. They can bring us into a new mindset of hope to meet each day’s human reality and play life-giving music in our souls.

Reflection Questions:

1) What does the word “divine” bring to mind for you?

2) What human things would you like to stop spending so much time thinking about?

3) Try spending five minutes noticing/picturing things that feel, look, sound, taste, smell divine to you.

Prayer: Dear God, You fill the world with love and hope. Please help me to see it, to notice it, to set my mind on it. In Jesus Name, Amen