What's Your Mindset?

 

Have you ever met someone who seemed to enjoy being sick or being a victim? I have, and I admit I really don’t understand it. In 2016, I learned I had breast cancer. It made me mad (and a little scared) more than anything else. Determined to not be a victim, I began looking for ways to better care for myself – for ways to take charge of my health and not wait for death to take me. Others helped me a great deal (Cheryl Howe for one). It helped that I already had an interest in health-related topics too.

Clearly, people are different in how they approach life challenges. It appears to boil down to mindset. There are at least 2 types of mindsets: Fixed and Growth.

A fixed mindset is when a person does not believe there is anything they can do to control or change their situation. They are resigned to it and feel powerless. They are stuck.

A growth mindset is when a person believes they can grow and change and improve their situation with effort and hard work. These people don’t just “throw in the towel.” They take action. Success is there for those willing to work for it. Success might look different than first imagined, but there is still much that can be attained.

We form our mindsets from our culture, experiences, values, disposition, relationships, among other things. The way you think, feel, and behave impacts success and failure in life. Some time reflecting on these can be beneficial to one who is curious about what mindset they have.

To change our mindset to something more positive, we must first see the need for changing it. Maybe we’re stuck because we have not considered that there are viable possibilities we have not considered to improve our situation. For example, I was not happy about having a double mastectomy, but before and after my surgery, I got some acupuncture to help with the healing process. I also drank tons of healing vegetables via juicing and took lifegiving supplements. Others I know have gotten bariatric oxygen treatments after surgery. I did everything possible to heal quickly, because I believed it was possible to support my body through my actions. Guess what? I healed very nicely and had no complications, which I later learned was unusual. A growth mindset is a wonderful thing! (I didn’t know to call it that at the time.)

What does a biblical mindset look like? God is the giver of all truth and wisdom, so He should be consulted. Talk about thinking “outside the box”! Scripture focuses on mind renewal. In opposition to our natural inclinations, we don’t live for the present, but for the eternal. Cultivating gratitude and joy results in abundant life. Let’s not forget faith (God can do the impossible} and courage (He is with us in tough times – even persecution). We turn our minds to the Spirit and let Him lead us instead of going our own way. Also counterintuitive, God commands us to love our enemies and serve others. Contentment with what God has provided gives us rest and satisfaction.

Our minds must be transformed to include these things as we become more Christ-minded. It happens over time and in small, often indistinguishable, increments as we read and meditate on the Word and choose a growth mindset. We can be changed! PTL! By aligning ourselves with God’s Word, He builds truth, purity, excellence, and beauty within us.

There is some work that needs to be done in me. May God’s Word do its (sometimes painful) work in me! What’s your mindset? Is is a growth mindset or are you stuck? Is your mindset biblical? Developing a biblical mindset is a lifelong quest, but sometimes we can look back and see how far we have come. Let’s grow together in the New Year!

joyce hague

The Christmas Story in an Unlikely Place

 

When you think of reading the Christmas story, you most likely think of Luke 2. You may also turn to the gospel of Matthew to read more about Joseph and the wise men. Passages preached in Christmas messages also include the prophets, particularly Isaiah and Micah. Additionally, I have always loved Galatians 4:4-7 in the context of the Christmas story which relays how God sent Christ to be born in the “fulness of time.” However, one place we do not typically go to for the Christmas story is the book of Revelation. Yet it is there, in this unlikely place, told in an unusual way and pointing to a great reality. Let’s take a look.
            Revelation 12:1-6 goes like this: “And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days.”

            Revelation is a book that describes John’s symbolic visions, pointing to things yet to come. As the ESV Study Bible notes, it “unveils the spiritual war in which the church is engaged: the cosmic conflict between God and his Christ on the one hand, and Satan and his evil allies on the other.” Its purpose is not for the believer to be able to “decode” every piece of symbolism or for the church to argue for years to come about its timeline and what to take literally. Its main message is simple: Christ will return as conquering king and will judge the world. And the church, in the meantime, can stay encouraged by this truth, persevering despite hardship until that day comes.

            So, with this in mind, look back to the above telling of the Christmas story. The pregnant woman could specifically refer to Mary or more generally to the Israelite nation into which Jesus would be born. The descriptive words (sun, moon, 12 stars) point to Israel. Meanwhile, the red dragon, Satan himself, with the descriptors that show power, is seeking to do what he can to prevent this child’s coming into the world. His goal is to devour that child. What methods does he employ? The one that stands out clearly to me is when Herod has all the young boys in Bethlehem killed in an effort to eliminate any rivals to his throne. But we can think back even further to the Old Testament: Pharaoh’s attempt to have the Hebrew male babies killed in Egypt, the famines, and the captivities. Satan did not want this child to be born.

            This passage in Revelation then skips straight from the birth of the Christ child to his being “caught up to God and his throne.” In other words, Satan could not stop him. God protected Christ’s life while he was on earth so he could submit to the Father’s plan, dying on the cross for the sins of man so we could now be right with God through faith in Him. I love this shortened version of the Christmas story because it does what Revelation sets out to do: It shows the cosmic battle that continues today that will not be won by Satan. He was not able to stop Jesus, and he will not be able to stop Jesus’s church. The rest of Revelation repeatedly bears this out in a variety of ways. The same Jesus who was born in Bethlehem will return, though this time not as a baby but as a conquering king (Rev. 19:11-16).

            I think it’s appropriate that at Christmas time, we don’t just focus on Jesus’s first coming as a baby, but we remember that we are in a time of waiting for Jesus’s second coming. And thus, we heed the message of Revelation: We are in a battle, so let’s fight well and let’s persevere. And above all, let’s keep our eyes fixed on the sky, knowing that the victory already belongs to God and to His Christ, and that one day Jesus will return, put an end to all that is wicked and broken, and take us home.

-- Amy O’Rear

More Than Coffee and Doughnuts

 

One of my favorite times of the week is the fellowship half-hour between services on Sunday. I like to get back to the fellowship hall in time to finish my coffee, but I also want to take my time and talk to people along the way. It’s a great time to really look at people as you pass, ask them how they’re doing, and take time to listen.

Once you get to the large room with coffee and doughnuts, listening is going to be hard. There is a variety of ages and even languages to enjoy. There is lots of conversation, laughter, and music, but that’s ok because it’s a joy to watch folks interacting with each other and to hear little snippets of talk: Well, here you are . . . That was beautiful! . . . How have you been? . . . I’ll just have one doughnut.

These are not monumental conversations, but they are meaningful just the same because they allow us to share moments of our lives with others. A smile or a pat on the back can sometimes communicate care and concern as well as an extended conversation.

I love to watch the children sitting together sharing secrets or hiding under the table munching snacks. They are learning that church is a warm and friendly place and that the people there love them.

I am so grateful our staff developed this plan for Sundays. I know it’s a lot of work for several people. I see them week after week, picking up and sorting things out, but they are helping to make possible the admonition found in scripture to “exhort one another” (Hebrews 3:13), to “comfort each other and edify one another” (I Thess. 5:11).

Certainly we carry out these admonitions in other ways as well. I hope you are involved with a small group and that you take the opportunity to connect with a class during the discipleship hour. Over the years, some of my best church relationships have been forged in these kinds of groups, and I love bonding over God’s deep truths.

The fellowship time is a way to get to know different people or to reconnect with longtime friends. So if you aren’t in the habit of moseying back to the fellowship hall, give it a try. If you make it a point to show up every Sunday, you already know--It’s more than coffee and doughnuts.

--Sherry Poff