eh?

This week has been a big reminder of a truth I first learned about because had to literally fight for my life over. And now, a friend and wife of a brother is learning the same lesson.

But more on that in a moment.

I’m in Logic class, something I believe should be entrance requirement for every single university/human on the planet. On tuesday our prof mentioned and again today he reminded us of one of his core beliefs: spiritual warfare in the world, and especially the west is in it’s nature ideological.. a battle for our minds.

There’s something basic in Christianity about having the “mind of Christ.” We’re told that we are to be renewed unto it. What then are renewed from? To put it into “my own words”: from World-thought (lies) to Christ-thought(truth). Our ability to detect & counter (fight) the lies that’s put out by the enemy, the world and even our own twisted minds is core to Christian living. We don’t believe all is one & one is all. 1jn 4 1jn2 2Cor 10

Here’s a quick set of common lies my prof spit out: My life is not worth living(so I ought kill myself), All religions are the same (so it doesn’t matter what I choose), Science has the answers(so religion isn’t of worth/truth-holding), Religion ‘A’ says that Jesus is ‘Y’, religion ‘B’ says that Jesus is ‘Z’.

Now, back to me & my friend.. I like the very first lie my prof said. Cuz that’s very close to what I had to fight a few years ago. Previously a friend had caught me asking, “You keep calling what you think ‘your thoughts’. Are you sure they’re yours?” I didn’t understand what he was getting at.. keeping me from pride, that there are others before me who’ve thought the same and maybe I’m just repeating it? Probably true, but in this direction, I was actively living according to what was in my head. Not all my thoughts I thought were from me. I thought they were. And when thoughts like, “God isn’t with you”, “God doesn’t love you”, “God is irrelevant to your pain”, “You’re alone.” “You can’t do this”, “You’re failing” start into your head.. even subtly, even on a lower level than what you would even admit to, there’s a war going on.

So I had to explicitly state those quiet statements in my mind that would ultimately control my actions & emotions.. and actively choose whether they were true or false. Now, I could have used any criteria for deciding truth from lie.. I could have gone Post-Modern and said there is no difference, but these thoughts and such a criterion were driving me to a very lonely, isolated, unhealthy position in life. So that wouldn’t do. I’ve known the truth- I know the truth is in Jesus, so His words became my standard. And freedom came with the fight. I started throwing out & denying when all I felt was the opposite of what Jesus said. It was the front-lines of a battle for my life. And it was a battle for my mind.

Now I hear of my friend, who is in a similar position. We’re both thinkers. I’m sure it hits thinkers the worst. The enemy’s hitting our heads. Her husband is going crazy cuz he wants to solve her problems, but he can’t. He has before, but this time, this is her battle.

We’re all praying for ya sis.