A joyful mind

Friday, May 13, 2022

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A joyful mind

Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me.

Jesus’ own heart is troubled. He watches his disciples out of tear-filled eyes. Nothing he can do will change the plan of his Father. And everything is coming to a head tonight.

In my Father’s house are many mansions. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?

Jesus has put so much into his disciples’ lives. Their spirituality, their way of seeing themselves and their Creator in the world, changed so much in the three years they’ve spent together. In a moment he will promise them “even greater things” as the Holy Spirit comes to them. But now he is leaving. Jesus has much more he would like to say.

Richard Rohr’s The Naked Now ends with several appendices. Appendix Nine, “The Joyful Mind,” sounds to me a lot like Jesus:

What might a joyful mind be?

1. When your mind does not need to be right
2. When you no longer need to compare yourself with others
3. When you no longer need to compete – not even in your own head
4. When your mind can be creative, but without anyone needing to know
5. When you can live in contentment with whatever the moment offers
6. When you do not need to analyze or judge things in or out, positive or negative
7. When your mind does not need to be in charge, but can serve the moment with gracious and affirming information
8. When your mind follows the intelligent lead of your heart
9. When your mind is curious and interested, not suspicious and interrogating
10. When you do not need to humiliate, critique or defeat those who have hurt you – even in your mind, when you do not brood over injuries
11. When your mind does not need to create a self-justifying story
12. When your mind does not need the future to be better than today
13. When your mind can let go of obsessive or negative thoughts
14. When your mind can think well of itself, but without needing to
15. When your mind can accept yourself as you are, warts and all
16. When your mind can surrender to what is
17. When your mind does not divide and always condemn one side or group
18. When your mind can find truth on both sides
19. When your mind fills in the gaps with the benefit of the doubt for both friend and enemy
20. When your mind can critique and also detach from the critique
21. When your mind can wait, listen, and learn
22. When your mind can live satisfied without resolution or closure

If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

(Acts 13, Psalm 2, John 14)

(posted at www.davesandel.net)

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