The Cave

My best friend came into town this past weekend. Have you ever spent time in the presence of people you admire, cherish, love, and aspire to become more like? I had four days of that! She's a spiritual force. I can look to her and say she's pointed me to Christ.

During one of our conversations this weekend, the recent revelation I've been having came full circle (that's what happens when you're in community). The past few weeks, I've had this freeing AWESOME epiphany that keeps manifesting itself in new ways.

I am what I think. What I think determines how I act.

I have a constant battle in my mind over fear of judgment: but what if I called that battle conquered and started to believe it?

What if I lived out the second part of 2 Corinthians 10:5 and made every captive thought obedient to Christ?

What if I took Tim Keller's advice and replaced negative thoughts and idols with the Gospel? Replaced them with experiences, conversations, Scriptures, songs, community that remind me of His deliverance and sacrifice?

What if I was proactive in not just stopping bad thoughts, but in STARTING good wholesome thoughts about God's grace, love, sovereignty, redemption, restoration, healing?

I'd be healthier, more spiritually alive, and able to discern the voice of God more clearly. Sign me up for that.

David Chadwick said this morning that if the spiritual realities of life in Christ are true (that we are raised with Christ, we have died to sin, our lives are hidden with Christ in God, we will appear with Him in glory), then we must seek things that are eternal. Our minds are set on things that are above!

We must live and breathe the truths that "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of the cross"

(Colossians 1:15-20).

We were alienated and hostile but He has reconciled us by his death in order to present us holy, blameless, and above reproach: why don't we think on that?

Lately I haven't been able to stop listening to 'The Cave' by Mumford and Sons and have felt drawn to these lyrics:

"So come out of your cave walking on your hands

And see the world hanging upside down

You can understand dependence

When you know the maker's hand"

My mind paints a lot of mental images when I hear this verse. I see a dark cave and I imagine a desperate, frightening, surrendering journey to find the light. I imagine coming to the end at a crawl. I imagine emerging from the cave and realizing your world was not the same as the one you left. In fact, it's completely different: it's upside down. Dependence becomes real to you when you know there's a Maker: a Maker who shaped your world and radically shifted how you see things. How you think things.

Going through a cave of trials and turning to Jesus and His Gospel in the midst of it will make you come out thinking differently.

I think we all go through some kind of cave. A cave of confusion, darkness, despair. But our cave should turn us to Jesus and remind us of the Gospel. We turn to the light and find our world changed. We have a choice to turn to Christ in dependency and cry out for his help.

You may feel like you're in the midst of your cave, but throw your hands in the air and fall on your knees and worship a God of wholeness, healing, restoration, and redemption. Believe in a God who reigns and believe you're entitled to a thinking re-route.

Because Christ died for you, think eternal.