The Power of the Mind

While taking my kids camping and hiking this past weekend, I realized several things.  First, I miss camping a lot more than I realized.  Second, I am way more out of shape than I realized.  And finally, I realized just how strong and resilient the human mind can be.

One of our campsite neighbors was a kayak-er, solo camping.  This absolutely fascinated my nine year old son, Connor, since most campers tend to be families or at least couples.  Connor took to calling this neighbor 'Lone Survivor' since he was by himself.  Late Saturday morning, after a big breakfast and cleaning up the campsite, we started on a hike up Morrow Mountain.
Shortly after we started hiking, Connor decided he was hungry.  Now, if you have seen any of the snickers commercials about not being yourself when you're hungry, then you understand the dilemma I was in.  My wife puts it this way, 'Connor doesn't get hungry, he gets hangry.'

So here I am in the middle of the woods  with a hungry and grumpy nine year old.  I thought back to when Connor crawled out of the tent earlier that morning and had looked over towards our neighbor's campsite.  "Lone Survivor is already gone kayaking," he said.  I called my three kids into a huddle and took a knee in the middle of them.

"Here's the situation from headquarters," I said, winking at the older two.  "Lone Survivor has gone missing and we have to find him."  My kids managed to fill in the details and they were off on an adventure with me struggling to keep up.  I had given Connor a granola bar at the beginning of the 'briefing' but by now he was so into his little adventure that he had forgotten all about being hungry.

Now, I am definitely not suggesting that he was really hungry to start with or that all of a sudden his hungry vanished.  What I am suggesting is that the human mind is a lot stronger than we ever give it credit for. It is the power of our mind that enables to push way past our human limits and accomplish more than we could have imagined.

I think the Lord understood this.  I think that's why He was more interested in changing our thought patterns than our actions.  He knew the actions would fall in line once the thoughts were right.  Read the sermon on the mount.  He was as concerned about lust and anger as He was adultery and murder; which makes sense, because the former lead to the latter.  If we can control the lust, adultery will never be a problem.  Paul put it best when He said be 'transformed by the renewing of your minds" in
Romans 12.

It is our thinking and mind that will transform the rest of us.  So, the next time you are struggling with your actions, remember Connor and his 'Lone Survivor' and get your thinking lined up.  The rest will follow.