The Trash Bin or The Moment - Romans 12:1, 2 - Day 1

June 21, 2012 • Leave a Comment

“Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

Romans 12:1, 2

Recently, while engaged in a conversation, I was challenged to get rid of the trash residing within my mind and to practice living in the moment. What a challenge!

Most of my trash comes from memories of my past still haunting me. Thinking I have overcome these childhood traumas, I realize, at times, I’m still giving them the power to form a mental image of myself. This is called insanity. Insanity is transferring my self-picture to others, when most people view me through a completely different lens. So here’s what I’m learning to do, and maybe … just maybe … you too may benefit from my last month’s challenge.

First, I meditate on God’s Word allowing Him to reveal himself to me in new ways. Second, each and every time one of these memories force themselves upon me, I take them captive. I literally grab them and with a fixed gaze I stare them down, reminding each mental image it no longer has a place within my thoughts; Philippians 4 tells me to “take captive every thought and align it with God’s Word.” Third, I replace it with the reality of who I am in Christ.

Who I am in Christ, my identity and my source of power to overcome, is where living in the moment begins. So much of life is unfair and not of God’s design. He did not choose for me, as a child, to experience the trauma I endured; however, He did allow it. Allowing it, to me, is not God selecting me to experience or be raised in a certain way, but to “allow it” means, through free-will, God allows sin to enter this world. Therefore, consequences of man’s choices abound: there is darkness, destruction, devastation, pain, suffering, ridicule, torment, and injustice forced upon children; forced upon me as a child.

Reality, living in the moment, tells me hope abounds. The God of the universe so loved me, He gave Jesus, His one and only Son to die for me. Therefore, through Christ, God grabbed me, and my entire childhood trauma, out of the darkness, destruction, devastation, pain, suffering, ridicule, torment, and injustice and gave me love, peace, joy, contentment, and self-worth. I am a new person with an old past and a new future.

Bottom line … I can choose to dwell on the old past which is full of sin and pain, or I can choose to embrace and contemplate my new future full of hope and love. Whichever I choose will be recognized in my daily life … Why? Because where I allow my mind to go, my feelings follow, and my actions reveal.

How about you … where are you living? It begins in our minds … the trash bin or in the moment?

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