Wanted: Christian brainpower

I’ll be really honest with you. There’s a lot I don’t want to have to think about, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels that way. The weather here is beautiful today, and I’d really like to think about walking my dog, digging in my garden, or practicing my putt. But while there’s nothing particularly wrong with such thoughts, I believe there is much more we should be pondering.

Philippians 4:8 teaches us to dwell on “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute” and anything of excellence and worthy of praise. So what about the things going on in the world? Does this mean we are to ignore all the troubling news? It might be easier if we could.

When we walk with God on the path He designed, we should focus on His glorious victory and experience the warmth and joy of His presence. But God did not teach us to keep our eyes on him and ignore what we see with our peripheral vision along the way!

There’s more needed from a faith walker than what most of us are giving. God gave us eyes to see and minds to use; and we are not using them enough. Romans 12 teaches us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Why? So that we can prove what the will of God is, that which is good, acceptable and perfect. Knowing what the will of God is requires knowing what it isn’t. Such a task requires higher level thought processes such as comparison, analysis, and judgment–thought processes that God gave us. Thought processes that require the sacrifice of time and mental energy.

Sitting and soaking up the Sonshine is far more enjoyable to most Christians than the brainwork we are often called to do. The truth is we Christians have become complacent during the past several generations with regard to intellectual pursuits. We’d rather leave the difficult conversations and decision-making responsibilities to those who are more “gifted” or more “worldly”, while we bask.

God will always desire our time with Him, our worship of Him, and our resting in His grace and love. However, our culture needs our intelligent presence. It needs the wisdom that only God-followers can provide.

We’ve become really good at turning our heads in the name of tolerance and freedom. Instead, we should be engaging in thoughtful reflection, discourse and action for His kingdom purposes to be done “on earth, as it is in heaven.”

Oh, how we like to blame those in “power” for all our societal ills! But we elect our leaders. We condone (by our inaction) the x-rated advertisements. We look away when others vomit their hate all over innocent victims. We watch endless hours of hollow television while children across town roam the streets looking for love. We have the privilege and responsibility to choose how to invest our brain power, and we could do better.

Jesus repeatedly challenged His disciples and the Pharisees to ponder. He asked on more than one occasion, “What do you think?” even though, clearly, he already knew.

So let me ask you, “What do you think?” What do you think about? And specifically, what do you think about the Cybersecurity Act of 2009? Do you have a clue what to think? In case you’re not up on 21st century vocabulary, “cyber” means Internet. How familiar are you with this national legislative effort?

I’m guessing most of you need some study time. So I’ll leave you for today with the Cybersecurity Act’s purpose statement, taken directly from the working draft dated Mar. 31. I’ll save my thoughts about it for my next post, hoping between now and then you will stretch your mind to form an educated opinion of your own.

Cybersecurity Act of 2009:

“To ensure the continued free flow of commerce within the United States and with its global trading partners through secure cyber communications, to provide for the continued development and exploitation of the Internet and intranet communications for such purposes, to provide for the development of a cadre of information technology specialists to improve and maintain effective cyber security defenses against disruption, and for other purposes.” (Now that’s a catch-all phrase if I’ve ever seen one!)