What we put into our minds matters. What we believe has a real impact on our lives. In 1990, I got a job at UPS loading trucks, and my mind was just filled with addresses. Thousands of packages would move past me on the conveyor belt. Part of my job was to read every label that went by so I could get the packages for my truck. My mind was filled with addresses.
About a year later, I had the opportunity to become a UPS driver, and my mind continued to be filled with addresses. I learned to deliver ten different routes, and it was only a short time before I knew every street in those ten routes. It was so ingrained in me that I knew the roads, which side of the street had odd or even numbers, and how the numbers ran from high to low or low to high. For nine years of my life, I lived and breathed addresses.
What we put in our minds matters; all we have to do is hear a song from the 1980s to be reminded of this reality. A song I had not thought about in thirty years had come on the radio, and I started to sing it as I did in high school. Whatever it is we meditate on comes out in our thoughts and actions.
As you can tell, I was a product of the 1980s and loved growing up in Arnold. But I was not raised in the church. I was a product of the world. I had many truths I lived by due to my public school education and MTV. 1. I could be rich because that was the “American Dream.” 2. Sex was just sex. 3. A fetus was just a lump of skin. These so-called truths were taught in school and affirmed on most shows on TV
What was the result of these “truths” on me as an adult? The “American Dream” was a lie that led to depression. Casual sex left me empty and damaged, and my beautiful wife suffered for years as I was incapable of giving all of myself to her because I had given myself away to others. I was a shell of a man and had no idea how to lead my family.
If that was not damaging enough in one’s life, I also felt the pain of the 3rd lie. In 1984, I got my girlfriend pregnant. At the time, I thought I was being a real man as I drove her to the abortion clinic and paid for the abortion. The reality is I was a coward and a murderer.
A real man would have told his girlfriend that he would raise his child no matter the outcome of the relationship. But not me; when she started talking about abortion, I was relieved. I was a coward who should have stood up for my child who was inside her womb. Instead, I believed the lies I was taught and drove her to the clinic to murder my child.
In 1999, my life crashed into Jesus and forever altered the course of my life. My mind was transformed by the meditation of God’s Word, the Holy Bible. I now understand three other truths. 1. I am forgiven, and Jesus keeps no record of wrong. 2. I am a new creation re-born with a renewed mind. 3. One day after I meet Jesus face to face, standing behind Him, I will see a child I have never met.
What we put in our minds has a real impact on our lives. What are you putting in your mind? Are you allowing your mind to be renewed by scripture or CNN? If you are hurting from bad choices like I was, please reach out. We have many resources to help and even offer free counseling at Vine & Branch.
In Him,
Pastor Chris