God wasn't just messing about when he created man. To be sure, the physiological, histochemical, and anatomical features of a human being are astounding but if man was the crowning glory of God's creation then the human mind must be the crowning glory of man - at least in my mind. To contemplate such an entity is overwhelming and to be able to "self contemplate" even more-so. I'm sure the more versed philosophers reading this could better relate this concept but you get my drift.
The human mind is voracious in it's appetitie. Attached to the greatest sensory collecting system ever conceived, it is constantly "pulling in" sights, sounds, smells, temperature, pressure, categorizing, prioritizing, assimilating, deconstructing, becoming situationally aware, strategizing, creating, moving and reacting. In our current culture, the human mind is often mournfully described as being "bombarded by the media". It seems to me that, the human mind is constantly seeking bombardment. The profound lack of bombardment can have devastating effects on the mind as observed in those undergo solitary confinement or sensory deprivation or even more tangibly in the upregulation (increasing number and distribution) of cortical neuroreceptors supplying a portion of the body to which sensation has been lost as in a stroke.
Consider the story in Genesis 11 of the tower of Babel and what happened when men began to make use of their fallen minds to arrange bricks and mortar to make a name for themselves...
“Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.” So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.Pretty impressive for fallen minds and limited technology to draw God's assessment that their collective power needed to be dispersed. Like every aspect of humanity, the mind certainly "took a beating" at the fall and like every aspect of humanity, the original purpose of the mind was to bring glory to God and this is still the purpose of our mind today. In Love Your God With All Your Mind, J.P. Moreland argues, "The mind is the soul's primary vehicle for making contact with God and it plays a fundamental role in the process of human maturation and change, including spiritual transformation" citing Rm 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
Given such a great tool as the human mind, by our creator, as a Christian, why isn't my greatest mind focus my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? I almost always seem to be distracted by something trivially important like ... contemplating the relative length of my ring finger to my index and relating it to stock market performance or building my tower from bricks and mortar to make a name for myself. Lord transform my mind to your glory! Amen.
P.S. Here's another zinger from J.P. Moreland's Love Your God With All Your Mind "The contemporary Christian mind is starved, and as a result we have small impoverised souls"
Stop staring at your fingers!
"the human mind must be the crowning glory of man - at least in my mind" - Your mind may be correct, but it's a little conceited of it to be thinking out loud.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Rich...I want to borrow that book when you're done...should I expect it in the summer?
Definitely not thinking out loud :) This book has taken me down a few notches if anything! Presuming you were taking a shot at my pathetic pace of reading, didn't you mean summer 2010? Joking aside- this one is a bit of a slog - I'm only 1/4 through it - but well worth the effort. and it's all yours whenever I finish.
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