"Mind of Christ." Why would Christ have a mind focused on salvation? To me, the mind of Christ must have to do not with the theology of how we come to him, but rather with his mind! ...
I can't think of the last time someone spoke on letting the mind of Christ be in us so that we become humble (humiliated), less significant in the eyes of men, not regarding equality with church leaders as something to be grasped, humbling ourselves to the point of being misunderstood and possibly left out (by our own--not the world out there, but by the very members of our communities of faith), loss of influence and deliberate turning over of our power to those less capable than ourselves and trusting God to work it all out.
I'm working on my next article for UPI and it's interesting for me to see that over six years later, these themes are very important to me, even as they've developed along new lines.
6 comments:
"The mind of Christ"... another one of those great, undefined, wonderfully (but also maddeningly) elastic phrases that can be stretched and squeezed to make it mean any number of things!
But I think I get what you're saying... the "mind of Christ" as in "how Jesus mentally approached others and set aside his own need for ego gratification," not "full of the correct doctrines and interpretations of objective absolute biblical truth" which is how the phrase often seems to be applied.
What was the context of these ruminations? They were written before we knew each other! Where did you post them? TDS? Not that it makes such a big diff, I suppose. But it is cool to see you making the connection with yourself over the span of 5+ years!
So Julie. More details on this please, and on your journey.
I am very curious to learn more about it all. Take a break from dancing around the fireplace with a bone in your nose and a voodoo doll clutched in your fist to bring this faith/not faith journey of yours into sharper focus for me.
Or alternately, just link me to the articles/post that illuminate it all already.
Or, you could just ignore me, and go back to watching Paul & Jan 24/7, like the old days. Ha!
Dave, that second paragraph accurately describes what I meant in my writing.
I think the context (if I can look back accurately) had to do with the church we were attending and working in. In some ways, this passage haunted me in rereading it. It turned out to be prophetic in that I experienced some significant rejections related to my own faith changes just the following year.
I was also reacting to the mega church idea in general and the feeling that pastors seemed so eager to build these monuments to themselves...
I was tired of hearing about the essentials in doctrine and little about living a life that would be considered surprising and self-effacing.
Steve, I'll try to write a post answering a bit about your question. Good one but requires more than a blog comment.
Your post reminded me of a song that has this chorus:
He is the God of the humble.
He is the humble King.
Not many equate Christ's mind with humilty ... so great that you did.
Ok Julie:
I just realized now (as I am male, and dense as can be) that your second paragraph is ALL about Kingdom things. Over the past year or so, we have witnessed a sad episode of a church split. Nasty. And now, we have the chance to really figure out the "mind of Christ". May we, please.....do it much as you have stated. Well done!
Those are terrific lines from five years ago. Look forward to seeing how you're processing this stuff now.
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