This world, although a beautiful conglomeration of people, love, ideas, and personalities, is ultimately not the resting place for my heart and mind. I’d dare say that if you are a believer you would agree. Our society here in America has its ups and downs, some contrasting with the Christian mindset.
With Easter approaching, my mind always goes to the Saturday between Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. That day has little written about it, but I can imagine that Sabbath Saturday was full of fear, uncertainty, sadness, grief, and anxiety. In looking around our 21st-century society and our online and personal interactions, I believe those feelings are still very prevalent even though we know the truth about our future and salvation. It’s easy to get bogged down in the reality of our fallen world, so I am here to take us through a few ways to keep our resurrection mindset as we walk amongst a Saturday society.
When I was in school to be a speech-language pathologist, I took a lot of classes on neurology and the brain. There is one term I learned about called "metacognition," which is the act of thinking about what we are thinking about. That’s exactly what we are called to do if we want to start changing our mindset to be one with the hope and promise of Christ’s gift of salvation to us believers.
We are encouraged in Romans 12:2 to not “... copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” To change your mindset, you have to be aware of what your current mindset is, and if you are like me, you can be easily swayed to be discouraged or jaded depending on what you allow into your eyes and ears. This happens to me with certain social apps that I have to eventually delete or take a break from when I find myself getting “heated up” on certain topics.
To have a resurrection mindset means to fill our minds with what is from God, which gives us peace. To have a mind of Christ is often thinking the opposite way of how the world does. Look out for traps that Satan may try to engage you in whether it’s a text that throws you off, a new post online, or even the person cutting you off in traffic on the way to work. I have found that Satan likes to try and get me down either in the mornings when my mind has the freedom to move around as I am getting ready or at night when my mind is slower, winding down from the day, and more vulnerable.
You may have different situations, people, or times of day that can trigger a reaction in you, and that is why it’s so important to be aware of your mind and where it goes throughout that day. As Paul reminds us, we are not alone in this fight: “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings” (1 Peter 5:8-9). Once we know where we are vulnerable we can begin to stand against the traps with the Word of God and prayer.
Another way to strengthen your resurrection mindset while also being a witness to those who don’t know Jesus yet is to be honest with yourself and others about your struggles. If someone asks you a question about the Bible or why things happen as they do, and you are unsure about that answer, tell them you’ll look into it and get back to them. Being a believer does not mean that we know everything or that we hide from hard questions. Truth is, we all have "why?" questions and struggle with pain, loss, and heartache. The difference with a resurrection mindset is that we have faith in the One who created us and has our days in the palm of His hands. We trust the only One who can lead us one day at a time and comfort us when others turn on us.
Be a shoulder for others in pain even if you may not have experienced the same hurt, rejoice with those who are being blessed even when you have not yet received that blessing, and empathize with those going through difficulties you have experienced yourself to show them how God helped you. People relate to pain and struggle, and if you have a resurrection mindset, you can show the world how you deal with that pain while holding Jesus’ hand through it all, shining for him.
Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 of his thoughts on pain and struggle and how God’s strength comes through our weakness: “Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Now that we are more aware of where our minds go and are encouraged to be honest about our struggles with those closest to us in our lives, we can move into living and walking out each day with the hope of Christ. You may find it hard to stay hopeful in a society that is bitter and snarky with every swipe and news story. Hope can be hard to keep if you’ve been waiting for something longer than you expected or you find it hard to trust people because of past experiences within a fallen world. So what do we do when we have the hope of Christ in our hearts but find it hard to live it out on a day-to-day basis due to unmet expectations, sickness, or harsh realities? We go to Him.
A month ago, I was having heart arrhythmia for about five days in a row. On day three, I was getting exhausted physically and mentally from the stress it was causing, which wasn't helping the matter. I was debating on when I should reach out to a physician in case it was a sign of something more concerning. I remember pulling into my garage, turning off my car, and saying out loud in the dark, “Lord, I think my heart is sick.” Proverbs 13:2 states that “Hope deferred makes the heart sick...” and though my heart could have been offbeat from either stress, my diet, or dehydration, I know I was also feeling a bit depressed and hopeless at the time. My arrhythmia simply reminded me that the deferred hope I was feeling was also making my heart sick.
Thankfully, after five days, my heart rate got back to “normal,” but I continued to look after my mind more, gave myself more rest, was more thoughtful about my body and the food I was putting into it, prayed even more fervently and honestly to Jesus out loud, continued to dig into daily Bible readings, and reached out to trusted loved ones when I needed a hopeful reminder.
I pray my story and transparency will encourage you too, my friend, to be more aware of what you let yourself think and dwell on and how you are called to be a light in this dark world. I pray that you can be honest with yourself and those closest to you about the struggles you are facing and get the help you need from the people and resources available to you. I pray you can be an example to others who may be afraid of being honest about their struggles. And I pray that you keep your hope tied to Jesus regardless of the wait or troubles that are hurled your way. We know the Good News and the resurrection truth about our Jesus from that blessed Easter morning account. Let’s live in the freedom and truth Christ has given us in the “Saturday society” we live amongst with our “resurrection mindset” on Christ.
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images / Romolo Tavani