The movie, “A Beautiful Mind”, told the story of Nobel Prize winning mathematician John Forbes Nash, Jr. of Bluefield, WV and his struggle with schizophrenia. It begins with his college struggle of being a genius but unable to come up with anything unique until the day when in a flash of insight he revolutionizes economic theory. He went on to become one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century. Sadly, at age 31 he became delusional with paranoid schizophrenia and spent the next 20 or so years in and out of hospitals, but still functioning as a brilliant mathematician. Nash's story is remarkable because he was able to use his rationality to work his way around his schizophrenia without medication. He came to see that his politically oriented delusions were hopeless wastes of intellectual effort and so he chose to came back to the rational world of scientific thinking. The return to rationality was not a joyous thing for him for he understood first hand that rationality was a limitation he placed upon himself, a limitation that kept him from experiencing the fullness of his reality as he knew it. Nash's case is an exception and his story is by no means meant to encourage people with mental illness to stop taking medications.
"A Beautiful Mind" did a lot to raise public awareness as to what paranoid schizophrenia is like from the viewpoint of the person suffering with it. It disorders the mind with a disorientation that affects the entirety of a person’s life. Due to chemical imbalances in the brain schizophrenic’s become delusional, meaning they follow a wrong mind - a false belief based on incorrect inference about external reality and they stick to it despite what almost everybody else believes and the incontrovertible and obvious evidence to the contrary. A paranoid schizophrenic’s mind will function like: “I saw a red car, therefore my food is being poisoned.” They cannot help but believe the delusion is true reality because the chemical make up of their brain is saying its real as a "normally" functioning saying "I saw a red car, therefore there are red cars in the world." In response to this delusion the schizophrenic will enter into an unquestionable world of diet control and trying to determine who is doing the poisoning.
We tend to want to think of the mind as being that part of us that thinks. We go to school to train our minds to function in a world where everybody thinks alike. Yet, the mind is much more than just our ciphering mechanism, our reason. The mind is that part of us by which we understand and order our existence and it involves particularly what we believe about reality. Dr. Nash in his autobiography states that the way he keeps his existence orderly is to keep his delusions, his false beliefs, at bay by consciously choosing to live in a world that operates according to the beliefs of scientific rationality. He complains that rationality is a limitation placed upon the human mind, which in his case limits his relationship to reality as he knows it. His delusional world is apparently quite brilliant. When we say we have a sound mind we mean that we function according to acceptable beliefs about reality. People who live functionally with schizophrenia must choose which mind they are going to live in if the can. Indeed, that is what the medication is help with and again Dr. Nash's case is an exception if not an anomaly. Unfortunately, the reality that they truly believe to be the real world is not what jives with the reality of nearly everybody else. Summing up, the mind is not just that part of us that thinks.
In the biblical worldview, the mind is that part of the person by which we understand and order our existence. It deals with truth and how one lives accordingly. What the mind believes to be “the truth” is what we will order our lives around. Indeed, biblically speaking sin is primarily a problem of the mind not of behaviour and morals. Alcoholics Anonymous has the saying, "It's not the drinking. It's the stinking thinking." With addiction, it is the mind that needs to be dealt with, the spiritual mind, the relationship with God and others if there is to be any reprieve from the disease.
In the biblical worldview, the mind is that part of the person by which we understand and order our existence. It deals with truth and how one lives accordingly. What the mind believes to be “the truth” is what we will order our lives around. Indeed, biblically speaking sin is primarily a problem of the mind not of behaviour and morals. Alcoholics Anonymous has the saying, "It's not the drinking. It's the stinking thinking." With addiction, it is the mind that needs to be dealt with, the spiritual mind, the relationship with God and others if there is to be any reprieve from the disease.
The topic of the mind comes up quite often in the New Testament. Actually, the New Testament Greek word for repentance is metanoia. Meta means with and noia means mind. Therefore, the root meaning of repentance in the Bible is “with mindedness”. The call to repentance is for us to have in us the same mind that was in Christ Jesus – a sincere love for God that affects our lives to the point of wanting nothing more than his will for our lives and to live accordingly. Indeed, our repentance is a gift from him by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who brings into us a new mindedness which our sin driven mind struggles against. He puts his mindedness in us, his understanding of reality and drive to serve his
Father, that we might choose to understand and order our lives according to it and together become with minded in Christ as new humanity reconciled to God and in unity with one another.
Father, that we might choose to understand and order our lives according to it and together become with minded in Christ as new humanity reconciled to God and in unity with one another.
Paul tells us, “Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose (1 Cor. 1:10).” “If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind (Phil 2:1-2).” Most importantly, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death-- even death on a cross (Phil. 2:5-8).” Is Paul here inviting us to enter into a world of delusional thinking, a world that does not jive with the reality to which most people seem to subscribe? We could handle a reality that says the virtue of humility is a good thing. But, Paul here seems to be inviting us into a world of poor mental health. In a world where self-realization and being all you can be is considered the definitive healthy mindset, it would seem wrong to invite people to a world of dying to the self, a world marked by the wisdom of the cross and Jesus' power to save by it.
Christ Jesus’ mind apparently operated according to the unquestionable love of God, a love that led to a life lived in perfect obedience to the will of God the Father. He did not question his love for the Father nor his Father’s love for him despite the incontrovertible evidence against it…the way he was publicly scorned and his death on the cross. As he is the Beloved Son with whom the Father is well pleased, displeasing the Father was something he would not do because of love. In adoration of his Father he continually offered his life a living sacrifice to do his Father’s will, an act of offering that led to the cross. In the Holy Spirit Christ Jesus gives us to know and understand his mindedness that we might also love God the Father by offering ourselves to do his will as living sacrifices in thanks and in praise. This leads to our dying to ourselves. If we choose to live in his mind, we will have to let go of our old one.
One final delusional thought, the mind of Christ is not simply the property of us as individuals. It is our, this congregation’s, every congregation’s, way of life. Having the mind of Christ means the church is fundamentally about being a group of people who relate to one another according to Christ’s mind. We love God because he first loved us. Because we love him we offer ourselves as living sacrifices in thanks and praise as Jesus did. In this self-sacrifice God teaches and empowers us to love others as he loves all, unconditionally. This is the word of the cross which is the power of God for us who are being saved. It is the same power by which he raised Jesus from death. The same power by which he creates and sustains the entire creation. Sound delusional? Amen.
