Transforming Thoughts: Aligning with God's Perspective

but I think one of the fundamental themes that we uh that we learn from the scriptures and really in the Christian life is that we really are what we think and you know people joke about you are what you eat what you consume what you put in it's going to be a lot what the body is about by what we put in our bodies but really what we put in our minds and what we choose to think about within our minds comes out of us it comes out in you know how we think about the world around us the assumptions the presumptions the attitudes all the things within us and then what comes out in what we say and what we do how we conduct ourselves how we respond you know to the situations of the world so much of the human condition is about thought you know what's going on with inside of us [00:22:88]

and God calls out to Moses and he says you know that I've I've seen the affliction of my people I've heard their cry and I'm coming down to be with them this is the way God thinks about his creation about us about humanity that he desires to be where we are you know to be close to us and he is aware of all of our thoughts all of our hearts everything that's going on within us that God is close to us and he comes to make himself known [00:88:96]

and the reality is these seem same things happen to all of us people are people no matter when we lived people think as people think in the struggles and the difficulties the challenges the successes no matter what day and age people are people and so they kind of turned away from God in that midst of fear and whatever that Moses was gone and they kept having to be re you know configured to Christ and converted and being given covenants and the covenants where God gives himself to them [03:10:00]

and they were really in the mindset that if there was something that bad happened and it was a bad thing to good people well God did it and they deserved it this was the mindset this was the thought of the people and so there's a son a ton of passages in the in the gospels from Jesus where he's inviting people to think like God thinks and not as they've been maybe told to think or the way that things had been handed down in overt ways that got them to think that this is the way God operates all the time this is the way God thinks about everything [04:23:20]

and yet in the first century world there was that mindset and I think if you really think through it it's in our it's in ourselves as well and in in believers and non-believers as well where if there is a God and if the God made all things and he's in charge of all things and controls all he he controls all things that's where people take it that he's manipulating controlling he's a puppet master pulling our strings and it's the one main thing that Jesus tries to convince his people that he is not [05:12:72]

and it is that gift of self and that approach to life and approach to freedom you know that Jesus is ultimately challenging you know all of us to grasp and you know that whether these people had the towers fall upon them in Salom they weren't greater sinners that they suffered this death it wasn't God getting back at them and these people offering up their sacrifices and trying to give of the best of themselves to offer a spiritual and a sacrificial worship because it wasn't received god wasn't saying "I don't receive it from you." [05:53:44]

and the gardener there you know says "Well let me fertilize it let's give it some let's give it some help let's give it some guidance let's give it some education let's give it some you know fruit in different ways to produce some fruit and we'll see if it produces." And he ultimately allows it to happen until judgment and this same parable this same theme God reveals to us Jesus reveals to us that he thinks this way many times that in this world we don't have to be turning our shoulders thinking a bolt of lightning is going to come get us when you know something terrible happens [06:49:68]

and the reality of all of the scriptural readings of Jesus and the whole season of Lent and what this season really is about is inviting us to think from that perspective of God that we're all a work in progress every single one of us is a work in progress and every single day we should approaching the day and when we get up to say "What is it today Lord what is you inviting me into what am I called to see today what's going on in my mind in my heart that I'm approaching things in a particular way and is there a better way do you have some grace to give me [07:52:80]

and help me see my own personal accountability what is it that I am called to do please fertilize my heart and my mind so that I can be more accountable to myself to God to each other and I think it's you know we look at it from that perspective the things and think from that perspective of God listening and of hearing and of coming down and of being close and that God's presence to us can be about overt powerful miraculous things it has been we got evidence all around us but we also have the evidence from our own lived experience that it's not the ordinary means the ordinary means of God coming down and of fertilizing our hearts of showing himself to us of communicating to us is affecting the mind you know affecting us in such a way of revealing truth [08:45:28]

and the call for all of us is to hear that voice and respond you know realizing that every single day is a day ordered towards the kingdom but we're not at the kingdom till we get to the kingdom and so asking for that courage and wisdom to really think through what I'm how am I thinking Lord and what is it producing in me and what is it producing in my marriage in my work environment my all the different things that we engage on a daily basis are my thoughts God's thoughts are my thoughts in union with God's thoughts you know they taking me down a path of seeing the world the way he sees and in loving the way he loves and when it's not we seek conversion [09:50:72]

and so as we pray the mass we just ask for that willingness maybe to see from God's perspective of you know what our lives are about what we're doing and why and the thoughts that are kind of churning that produce those words and actions in our lives and in our relationships and you know is it really what God wants for us and if we sit back and look at him and receive the Eucharist yeah he really lets us know if those thoughts are leading us to a successful judgment and if they're not then we talk to him about it and we seek the change that he wills for all of us asking for that grace and guidance [10:37:60]