More than a Change of Opinion

S - "After Paul had gathered some wood and had put it on the fire, the heat caused a snake to crawl out, and it bit him on the hand. When the local people saw the snake hanging from Paul’s hand, they said to each other, “This man must be a murderer! He didn’t drown in the sea, but Justice will kill him anyway.” Paul shook the snake off into the fire and wasn’t harmed. The people kept thinking that Paul would either swell up or suddenly drop dead. They watched him for a long time, and when nothing happened to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god." Acts of Ambassadors 28:3-6

O - As it turns out, the local people were right about Paul's violent past and wrong about Justice.  On a couple of different occasions, he will write about his life before encountering Jesus of Nazareth on the road to Damascus. He describes himself as violently persecuting the community of followers and trying to destroy it; a pursuit which involved imprisonment and death for those he was after. When Paul didn't die by the snake bite, the local people would change their minds about him and be wrong again. The straight-line (cause and effect) thinking of people often appears logical and accurate and is just as often wrong. What is required is a change of thinking, not just a change of conclusions or opinions based on certain subsets of input. Straight-line thinking isn't always wrong but at its best it is always incomplete. This is, in part, why Jesus starts his conversation with world by saying: "Change your thinking. The kingdom of heaven has come near." 

 

A - Nature defies (resists, refuses) a straight line. Trees are vertical not straight. The Himalayas are beautiful but not one of them is straight. Rivers don't flow in a straight line and the horizon is curved. So, who made nature? Who are we following? It’s true that the shortest distance between any two points is a straight line— but it seems he rarely takes it. Straight-line thinking is why the 12 want to send the 5,000 families away hungry. Jesus had something else in mind.  It is why the Scripture experts of his day misunderstood and misapplied Sabbath. Straight-line thinking is why the religious and political leaders killed Jesus. He says "Change your thinking. The kingdom of heaven is near." He also says "Unless you change your thinking you too will end in ruin." I will welcome and accept more than a change of opinion; more than conclusions based exclusively on sequential assessments. I'll pursue and embrace a transformed thinking made possible by God's Spirit and the Kingdom that is near. 

 

P - God of Jesus and God of me,

I admit that I need an ongoing change of thinking unto the life that is really life.  I will welcome this change day by day, relying on you for its clarity and effect.  Thanks for the beauty of creation and the beauty beyond straight-line thinking.

Steve