Feelings follow after the thinking that our minds are doing. The path to emotional ruin is taken easily once our minds are convinced that we are in charge. If only everyone would think like us. If it is our desires that matter the most, then feelings bring plenty of destruction.

There are going to be tremendous amounts of conflict that go along with emotional ruin. Like the effect of the ring in the Lord of the Rings,

“Whatever we wants, precious, that’s whats we try to get.”

The emotional pull of possessing what we want makes it impossible to care about the needs of anyone else. The obsession takes over.

Take dating, for instance. As long as I am having my needs met by you, I am in “love” with you. How quickly that changes when you don’t do what I want or I am not getting the attention I feel I deserve. Conflict quickly moves in and with me at the center of the universe, obviously you must be wrong. Either you change your act immediately or I am out of here. I’ll simply fall in “love” with someone else until my needs aren’t being met again.

Follow your desires? On the path to self-ruin that is the last thing you should possibly do.

What is there in your life that has more to do with following your desires than doing the right thing?

The second part of you and me to examine is our “mind.”

‘Love the Lord your God with all of your mind…’

The mind is separated from the heart, but it works with it. The mind is constantly providing direction for the choices we make. The mind is further divided into two parts. “Thoughts” and “feelings.”

Thinking is where we process the world around us. We can consider many things in relationship with other things. Thinking is where we have the capacity to use imagination. It is where we form opinions and perceptions which we may or may not act upon. In a healthy mind, we use a set of standards called, “logic,” which help us measure our thoughts.

Our thinking is influenced by our feeling. It is our emotional response to what is being processed. Something may be logical, but we may feel that it is wrong. Two people can think in an identical way about something, but have a very different response because of how they feel. We are often pulled away from right thinking because we allow how we feel to take priority. This is where we can get into big trouble.

“Spock” is a good example of thinking and feeling. Check out the Star Trek (2009) movie to see this in a fresh, new way!

We use the word “heart” a lot. Even with young children. We often teach little ones to love Jesus with all their heart. We ask them, “Where is Jesus?” They reply, “Jesus is in my heart,” as they point to their tummies. I don’t teach Jesus this way with small children. I teach them Jesus is all around them covering them everywhere. He’s in your heart and all around you.

Then what about the heart? The biblical understanding of the word, when it is not referring to the actual physical organ in your body, has to do with your choices.

“Will,” “spirit” and “heart” are basically interchangeable words in the Bible. Your “heart” has to do with the choices you make. Your “will” and your “spirit” have to do with choices. You can substitute “choices” when you see these words and it will usually be an accurate understanding.

Choice assumes action. To choose is to exercise your own freedom. When you “love the Lord God with all your heart,” you seek the good of God’s plan through your choices. You actively partner with God to bring about what he wants brought about in the life you are leading together. To put your heart into it is to live as if it were so.

What is a choice that you are putting off?

Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: `Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: `Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”

(Mark 12:29-31 NLT)

God designs us. We are all wired a certain way. What we have in common you could call, “the essence of our humanity.” Or, “the dimensions of our existence.” What makes a person a person?

Jesus gives us an understanding of what our human nature is made of in his answer to a lawyer’s question, “What is the most important commandment?”

‘Love God and neighbor with everything you are.’

What are we?

Jesus breaks it down to five parts:

Heart

Soul

Mind

Strength (body)

Neighbor (social dimension)

If I can understand what makes me human, then I can begin to see how transformation affects all parts of my life. Let’s look at each of these dimensions and their relationship to spiritual formation.

Think on the word, “dimension.” Expand your thinking on this.

When we declare something good, it doesn’t mean it’s all good. There is a phrase that has been around for a while that shows this.

“It’s all good.”

I wish I knew where this phrase originated. I want to know the situation in which the person spoke. Why am I interested?

It’s not all good.

There are people who think of ways to destroy you and they don’t even know you. That’s not all good. There are people whom you will come to trust who will betray you when you least expect it. That’s not all good. What can you do?

When we say, “It’s all good,” though we know deep down that it’s not all good, we say the words like some kind of magical chant in order to convince ourselves that it doesn’t matter. Yet, we know it matters.

Perhaps we don’t think anyone else cares enough to actually be concerned that it’s not “all good” in our lives. Yet, there is one who does care. It starts with being open and vulnerable to him. How?

We become the kind of people who can care. When Jesus transforms us from the inside out, then we can see things through his eyes for the first time. Then, we don’t declare, “It’s all good,” but we can say with confidence, “There is hope and it starts with Jesus working through me.”

What do you need to be completely honest with God about? What is holding you back from opening up all the way to him?

In 2005, Jaime Fox won an Oscar for Ray. The acting was so good; it’s as if he was Ray Charles. You could say, Fox really “sunk into the role.”

In the language of the Bible there is a word for this “sinking into.” enduo. Romans 13:14 reads,

Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ…(Romans 13:14)

We are to literally, “sink into” our role as followers of Jesus. This doesn’t mean we try to look like him on the outside. Did you know there are still groups of people who wander around in robes and sandals warning about the end of the world?

They think they are supposed to look like Jesus. That’s not the point. It’s not trying to look like Jesus (who knows what he looked like anyway?) that is important. It’s sinking into the role of being like Jesus on the inside.

To clothe yourself with Jesus is part of that inside/ out process we have been talking about. We become like Jesus on the inside so that the things we do on the outside are done as Jesus would them if he were we in any given situation.

Imagine what Jesus might have looked like?

“I am not going to get angry anymore. No, really I’m not. This time I really mean it! I AM NOT GOING TO GET ANGRY!!”

Whenever we want to change something about ourselves, the direct approach is usually the way we choose to go. We try “willpower.” It might as well be “won’t-power” because the direct method almost never works.

We can’t convince ourselves to change. For a while it may be possible. Then we come under stress and our changes change back. The harder we try the more frustrated we get. What is the problem?

The problem is commonly labeled, “Self-help.” Every self-help magazine article tells us that we can do it. Go to Barnes and Noble and check out the “Self-help” section.

If you can’t lose weight/ be friendlier/ be more confident in five easy steps, then there must be something wrong with you. “After all,” the author seems to say, “If I did it and wrote a book about it, then you can, too. Not write the book, of course, but you can change.”

So, why don’t you?

To change from the inside out doesn’t last on our own power. We need something more. Recovery groups like AA know this to be true.

They teach that you have to give yourself over to a higher power to be sober. You can’t fight unhealthy behavior directly. Alcoholics can stop drinking when they place their trust outside of themselves. This is a great start and if they want to do more than just get sober, they can live a transformed life by opening up to the Holy Spirit.

Jesus designed us and so, naturally, he holds the key to lasting change. Where could you use change in your life right now?