Set Your Mind

There are a lot of things that we set in life:

• we set our alarm clocks
• we set our clothes out that we want to wear
• we set our keys on the counter
• we set our ovens to the right temp
• we set our hair
• we set our tables
• we set our clocks ahead or back an hour, depending on the time of year

I think you get the picture. When we set something, there is a reason for it and it takes effort.

For Christmas I gave Dave a charger for his iPhone, where the phone sits in a dock. It's actually a dual dock system, so he had it set up in the kitchen and between myself, Dave and the kids, there is always a phone or two being charged. When I got back from the soccer tournament in Philadelphia, I noticed the phone charger was gone. I found it upstairs in my bedroom, beside our alarm clock. Apparently, the night I came home was the night Dave left at 3 a.m. to go to Haiti. He went to bed at 8 p.m. and slept until 1:30, then got up and went to the airport. To make sure he didn't miss the alarm, he set the alarm clock by the bed, but then also brought up the charger with his phone in it and set that alarm as well. A lot of thought went into that decision, followed by a lot of effort. Bottom line, he didn't want to be late for the airport, he didn't trust the jet lag he had from Liberia and he doubled his alarms to make sure he'd wake on time.

He had a reason for it and he put the effort into doing it.

Colossians 3:1 tells us to set our minds on the things above. This is not a casual, "Hey, when you're driving, look up at the clouds and wonder what heaven is like." That's not his suggestion here. He wants to you set your mind - reason and effort. Purposeful. Do it. Setting your mind on the things above simply means to live with an eternal perspective. Don't get so caught up with life here on earth that you forget about God. See life through His eyes. Don't view Him through life. Purposefully make the decision to adjust where your mind is right now and put it on the things above. So often we want that to happen naturally, but if Dave hadn't set the alarm clock that night, it would have wakened him at 7:10 a.m. because that's what time I have it set to go off. Without willfully, purposefully changing what you think about, your mind will stay right where it is.

As you head into your weekend, one great way to set your mind on the things above is to get in the Word. Read through the book of Daniel and remember what you have been learning on Sunday mornings. Or jump over to Genesis and look for God's hand in history. Or better yet, work on your memory verses. Remember, heaven and earth will pass away, but God's Word will never pass away. That's what makes it so great to memorize.

Be purposeful. Make a point to set your mind on God this weekend.

Have a good one.