where waves grow sweet

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. 2 Timothy 3:16 NLT

In a world where everything is relative, it is hard to define what is right. We are given free reign to choose our own brand of goodness, our own version of truth. Even what is real seems up for grabs. There is no solid ground to stand on in this world, where even our own hearts deceive us. It is no surprise so many of us are confused, anxious, depressed, and tormented. We keep insisting on our rightness, continuing on our own paths, and are surprised when things keep turning out the same crappy way. Good old Albert Einstein called this insanity.

If you’ve ever watched a show called Hoarders, you’ve probably been alternately intrigued, baffled, and saddened. It is hard to comprehend how someone could be grieved and panicked to get rid of a rotten pumpkin, a broken toilet seat, or a collection of malnourished cats. It is clear to an onlooker that something in the thinking of these people that has gone awry and interfered with their ability to live a healthy life, but in the hoarder’s view their actions seems right, the need to keep the toilet seat easily justified.

We are often just as guilty. Our homes may be in order, but our minds are cluttered with things as stale as the four year-old cat poop on a hoarder’s floor or as putrid as the bloated milk carton on their table. We consider certain thoughts and viewpoints, which have brought about nothing good, as treasures to be guarded rather than trash to be tossed. The bigger the mental garbage heap grows, the more tightly we cling to it. All the while, our relationships are sacrificed and our lives compromised.

Since, as Einstein so simply stated, “we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them,” we’ve got to change our thinking. The only thinking based on something higher than human understanding is the Bible. It’s not just about the words on the pages that wash our crusty minds and renew our thinking, but of the living Spirit inhabiting those words who ignites our hearts and sets our imaginations on fire. I can’t encourage you – and me – enough to grab that book, read it, soak it in, chew on it, and ask the God of the universe to reveal his perfect, unchanging truth.