a 'peace' of my mind

i read this at work the other day: peace of mind depends on strength of mind.


it made me think of this: God has given us--not a spirit of fear--but of love, power, and a sound mind.


and this: a double-minded person is unstable in all their ways.


let me share a piece of my mind...t'will be a tad tautological, but i do have a 'peace' to share :-)



to have strength of mind is to have a sound mind, and vice versa. the 2 are relatively synonymous. this refers to self-discipline, self-control, sobriety...all those words that speak of good judgment and discretion...all those words that fly in the face of desire, which is healthy when it causes us to positively act, but is all too often unheedy and over indulgent. for instance, let's consider saying one thing and doing another. i say i'm watching what i eat; what i really mean is that i watch the double cheeseburger meal get smaller on my tray as i take bite after guilty bite, all the while hoping you don't walk in mcdonald's and see me in the act of surfeit again. i said one thing and did another. that's pretty double and unsound, in my humble opinion.


now that's an incredibly reductive definition of being double minded, but still reveals that i don't have the discipline or control that i let on to you i have. i think it's safe to say having 2 minds isn't really a character trait to be proud of. one, it means i'm always speaking out of both sides of my mouth so that i'm attempting to satisfy the doubleness and play both sides of the fence; and two, it puts me in the precarious position of never being taken seriously or being thought of as a phony whose word is as good as a rotten hot dog on a hot summer day. it smacks of disingenuousness, and to be frank, that stinks :-)


so, God has given me a sound mind. this means when i'm of 2 minds, i'm not exercising my God-given reason; in fact, i've veritably forfeited it, and my rationale has been replaced with a reckless resourcefulness in that i'm using my mind in the 2-fold way that's always an option, but always a problem. believe me, it will catch up, and will result in an instability that people will pick up faster than the $20 bill you drop out of your pocket because of your misuse of money...and your mind.


the danger is that if i live like this i'll have no peace...because, like i already intimated, playing both sides of the fence and speaking out of both sides of my mouth means i'm always backtracking, covering my steps, picking up the pieces, trying to keep the story straight, etc. if i'm working the crowd from all angles, eventually it will catch up to me...not to mention the constant sickening feeling of restlessness and peacelessness (ps: i checked...that's a derivative of the adjective peaceless :-) ) over my disingenuous duplicity being found out.


ok, so the way i see it, i need to use the 1 mind i've been given in the way God intended, which means showing some restraint and making the kind of choices that don't contradict. my pastor jokingly but pointedly said yesterday morning that the brain is really a spiritual thing and people should use it more. i think that applies here. if double mindedness is bad and breeds instability, it conversely means that using the mind God gave me to exercise discretion and good judgment will result in balance...balance that doesn't leave me telling the same story a dozen different ways to half a dozen people who have already figured me out and don't respect me or take me seriously anyway.


do yourself a favour and be real the first time around. that way the second and third and fourth times around you won't have to try and remember what your story was the first time and to who. the result will be people who respect you, and an overarching peace and singularity of purpose that will make you that much more reputable in your relationships.