Transforming Lives Through the Power of Ideas

you are an idea person and by that i don't mean that you're particularly creative or generative i'm sure you are what i mean is you and i are the kind of creatures whose lives are governed by our ideas so what idea will you carry with you through this day what idea do you want to dwell on do you want to dwell in do you want to have govern your life here's a possibility god is love there's another possibility beloved because god so loved us we also ought to love one another [00:00:27]

dallas says the mind mostly consists of ideas images thoughts and thinking and information will look at those but today is ideas this is so important page 96 dallas writes ideas are very general models or assumptions about reality they are patterns of interpretation historically developed and socially shared they're sometimes involved with beliefs but are much more than belief they're much deeper it's kind of like your body has cells they come and go quite quickly but then you have organs and those organs are much more stable and your health depends on them [00:01:27]

if you want to see ideas in action he says look at artistic expressions especially in our day in pop music or in movies if you think uh back in the 50s if you saw a tv sitcom the wife would be home fixing dinner the husband would be off at work if you see a sitcom today real different back in the 30s if you saw a movie there would be very few african-americans in it if they were they would be presented in a very demeaning way today quite different [00:02:28]

now dallas writes for all their importance to human life ideas are never capable of definition or precise specification and yet people never stop trying to define them in their vain efforts to control them and now jesus among other things is a master of the idea and lent as we think about him is a real good time to pause and reflect to do perhaps an idea audit because it is so difficult to know what are the ideas that really govern my life or yours [00:03:11]

a practice only makes sense within some larger framework vision intention method vim that gives it meaning and purpose and makes it effective and compels the heart imagine somebody's a football player on a team they want to win the super bowl but then somehow all of that goes away the story goes away there's no super bowl anymore no more games no more teams and they say to themselves i don't know today should i run sprint should i lift weights should i stretch my hamstrings nothing seems too meaningful to me [00:05:19]

dallas goes on now christian spiritual formation is inescapably a matter of recognizing in ourselves the idea systems of evil that govern the present age what we are seeing right now in ukraine is what one priest that i heard recently called empire madness now empire madness is an idea it is part of an idea system about where greatness lies and what makes life worthwhile in what is worth giving your life tool to and great violence and injustice is being done [00:06:40]

dallas goes on to change governing ideas whether in the individual or the group is one of the most difficult and painful things in human life genuine conversion is a wrenching experience it rarely happens to the individual or group except in the form of divine intervention revolution or something very like a mental breakdown divine intervention think about paul on the road to damascus also why do you persecute me a revolution think of what the civil war did [00:07:41]

it is a wrenching thing and only god can do it but one other key idea uh jesus is the master of ideas and so our vision now is we're not engaged in these little private acts of self-imposed sacrifice we live today in solidarity with every person that god made and we think particularly right now for those in ukraine and we pray for them and as we think about giving especially in this time of year one of the things nancy and i are doing through the red cross is to give to that part of the world [00:09:18]

jesus himself confronted and undermined an idea system and its culture which in turn killed him he proved himself greater than any idea system or culture however and lives on he is continuing the process of a worldwide shift that's what we're a part of that's the vision you and i are engaged in a worldwide idea shift that begins in our own minds oh god may it be true in the mental map that i'm living off of you are love help me to see other people as those worthy of my self-sacrificing love [00:10:11]

he is continuing the process of a worldwide idea shift that is crucial to his perpetual revolution in which we each are assigned a part so you play your part guard your heart [00:10:56]