Love God With All Your Mind

As part of Lent we’re inviting you to enter into practices centred around “The Jesus Creed”:

‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these. (Mark 12:29-31)

In this season we are reminded that God’s love transforms us into people who are beloved to love. Each week we emphasize a different part of the Jesus Creed. This week: love God with all your mind.

We are what we pay attention to. What occupies our thoughts, our minds, our attention––speaks volumes about who we are and who we are becoming. That’s why in the Jesus tradition so much attention is given to our thought life:

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." (Romans 12:12)

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” (Philippians 4:8)

“Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’” (John 8:31-32)

Therefore to grow more into a person of love involves giving our attention to the God who is love. And one way to love God with all our minds is through the spiritual discipline of “study.”

Richard Foster offers this definition: “Study is the process where­by our minds take on an order con­form­ing to the order of what­ev­er we con­cen­trate upon. Garbage in, garbage out; or con­verse­ly, beau­ty in, beau­ty out. It real­ly is as sim­ple as that.”

We live in a highly educated culture and many of us are highly or extensively educated and trained. So we may be familiar with study. But what makes the practice of study a Christian discipline? It is through the content and the spirit of the study.

The content: Anything that can lead to the glory of God is what makes it Christian study (for example the things that Paul lists in Philippians 4 above).

The spirit: One of humility and openness to God, opening our minds to receive what God has to teach us.

So with the right content and with the right spirit we invite you to love God with all your mind this week.

Invitation to practice:

• Give your attention to whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy this week.
• You can do this through active, rather than passive, reading of scripture every day this week. Active as in with a pen and notebook nearby (or a note app open), ready to write, reflect, engage with God.
• Some direction if you need it: 1 John and the Gospel of John
  • 1 John PDF for you to download and print out to mark up.
  • Study 1 John 3-4 this week in particular, as that is what the next few sermons and small group material will be on.
  • Small group material to help you: https://www.thetapestry.ca/Small-Group-Material
  • Looking ahead to the rest of Lent consider studying the Gospel of John one chapter a day (21 chapters in total). If you start this week it will carry you into Holy Week (Mar 29) and help you be more attentive to the person and story of Jesus.
• You can also read part of a spiritual book every day this week.
• With all this study focus on learning more about God’s character of love and how you too can grow in love.
• Talk with God, ask questions, ponder with God. And talk with others about what you are studying.

Michael Yang is the campus pastor of The Tapestry Nights
Photo Credit: @Kelly Sikkema