Think Differently
Romans 12:2
2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. (NLT)
Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (The Message)
Back in the late 90’s, Steve Jobs (Apple) challenged his employees to think different.
- If his employees said it was impossible – he said make it possible
- If his board members said it was impossible – he said I can make it possible
- They ended up doing what was deemed impossible – possible
Back in 1994 he did an interview with PBS and was asked about his success. (click here and watch the first minute)
If you don’t want to watch the video – read the transcript below:
“When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and your life is just to your is just your life inside the world. Try not to bash the walls too much. Try to have a nice family, have fun, save a little money.
That’s a very limited life. Like can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that is – everything around you that you call life, was made up by people who were no smarter than you. And you can can’t change it. You can influence it, you can build your own thing that other people can use.
The minute you understand that you can poke life and actually something will, you know if you push in, something will pop out on the other side, that you can never change it , mold it. That’s maybe the most important thing. It’s to shake off the erroneous notion that life is there and you’re just gonna live it, verses embrace it, change it, improve it, make your mark upon it.
It think that’s it very important and however you learn that, once you learn it, you’ll want to change life and make it better, cause it’s kind of messed up, in a lot of ways. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.” – Steve Jobs
As I translate what Mr. Jobs, he is saying, “don’t allow the things of this world form you into its image. Be transformed by the way you think!” As Christ followers we need to shake off this erroneous notion that life is there and you’re just going to live it vs. embracing it, changing it, improving it, and making your mark on it. If we are going to make this personal then our thinking needs to change. It doesn’t HAVE to change it needs to change. The average Christ follower is just “living for Jesus.” Generally, what that means is that we go to church, we tithe, we do our Christian thing. In other words we love to be in a Christian bubblehood kingdom and we are formed in our churches image.
As Mr. Jobs said our world is messed up. This is not a Christ follower saying this – everyone, even non-Christ followers, know our world is messed up. Read the newspapers, read on the internet, and watch the news.
Jobs idea of changing the world was creating gadgets that we didn’t know we needed.
Jesus idea of changing the world begins with you and me changing the way we think.
Steve Jobs is right when he said, “everything around you that you call life was made up by people no smarter than you.” Everything you see around you, all the customs and behaviors of this world are made up by people and they are designed to drag you down to its level of immaturity. As Christ followers we are not called to reflect the immaturity of the world nor are we to pretend we have it all together.
Can you think of ways that Christ followers reflect the immaturity of the world?
I got asked frequently to speak at this one particular Christian school. The last time I was invited to speak at this Christian school, I was talking about what it meant to be a real Christ follower. I said it doesn’t make a difference if you were home schooled, private schooled, Christian schooled, public schooled one needs to follow Christ in all those settings. I didn’t say one was better than the other. In fact I praised the teachers for the quality education they give. It was a beautiful service and kids made commitments to follow Christ at a higher level. By the time I got back to the church (within eight minutes) my “pastor-boss” was called and informed of what I shared. He simply said they are probably not going to ask you back. They didn’t.
It alarms me of the spiritual immaturity I see in so many Christ followers. Feelings get hurt because certain people don’t get their way. Some Christ followers stop tithing because their feelings were hurt. Some Christ followers don’t support any ministry in the church because they don’t have the time.As Christ followers we are called to spiritually grow up and not give into the patterns of this world.
I read a story of high school coach in Utah who suspended his 80-player team to help them begin thinking differently. He got tired of the immaturity that his team was displaying off the field. He collected equipment from the players and explained that the team would not be permitted to play until they “proved themselves as human beings.” Coach Labrum said, “we felt like everything was going in the direction that we didn’t want our young mean going.” The suspension only lasted one day, The team did performed community service instead of practicing for their upcoming came against another high school.
Do you think his team began thinking differently?
Some of you reading this are thinking, “What a great lesson to teach young people.” Adults we need to listen
up because of many of us have fell into the trap of just living life instead of embracing it, changing it, improving it, and making your mark on it. The pattern of this world is to become successful, financially secure, comfortable, self-centered, have a nice family, have fun, and save a little money. This is a limited life. There is nothing wrong with any of those things but if that is all you want then you are caught up in the patterns of this world. Because all of those things I just listed reflect the patterns of this world.
As you read the scriptures, you will discover that Jesus is challenging us to think differently. Throughout the Old and New testament God has been changing the way people think:
- God changed Abraham’s way of thinking. His dad, Terah, made and sold idols to worship for a living. Abraham worshipped only one God.
- God changed Moses way of thinking. Moses outburst of anger and bitterness lead to him killing an Egyptian. Moses came back to Egypt and peacefully lead 2 million plus people out of Egypt.
- Jonah ran away from. Got swallowed up by a big fish. Jonah had some time to think inside the fish. He was spit out and he preached the shortest sermon is history and a nation was saved.
- Gideon a famer became Gideon the army leader
- Mary, the virgin, became Mary the mother of the son of God.
- Disciples who were fisherman became fishers of men.
- Disciples who were tax collectors began collecting people
- Nicodemus was a Pharisee became Nicodemus the follower.
- Paul the persecutor became Paul the church planter.
- Peter the denier became Peter the disciple-maker.
- The list goes on. Zacheus, the woman at the well, the woman caught in adultery, the Roman centurion.
If we are going to make it personal and live a transformed life one must be willing to surrender their thinking process to God.
This is where the real battle is. We give our hearts but not many people give God their mind. In other words, we want the lovey-dovey, warm n’ fuzzy, feel good part of the relationship with God. We don’t want to discipline our mind. We don’t want to practice loving our neighbor or enemy. We don’t want to practice serving others. We don’t want to be a living sacrifice.
Why? Because we are not convinced in our mind that following Christ is really worth it. Think about that for a moment. The only things we do in life are the things we are convinced are worth doing.
Paul was convinced
Nicodemus was convinced
Mary was convinced
The disciples were convinced
Moses, Abraham, Gideon, and all the others were convinced.
How do we know they were convinced – they became a living sacrifice. They sacrificed something personal to make it personal. In other words something happened in their mind as well as their heart.
I can’t help but think that many Christ followers have an emotional attachment to Jesus – meaning they like the fact that Jesus died on the cross and rose on the third day but not many are convinced to the point of making a commitment to love and serve others.
My wife won my heart when she walked through the church doors in Springfield, Illinois on August 11th, 1985. I asked her to marry me in February 14th, 1986. (yes 4 months later). My heart was into to it. Little did I understand the commitment involved in this kind of relationship. I had to learn how to be a husband. I learned quickly that marriage wasn’t about the lovey-dovey, warm fuzzy, feel good all the time kind of relationship. It was an all in commitment. If I was going to be a good husband I was going to need to learn how. I was going to have to learn to think differently. I was going to need to learn to love and serve her.
I think this describes many Christ followers. Our heart is into it but our minds aren’t. I don’t think we understand the kind of commitment God is asking of us. I don’t think many of us are convinced that Jesus is the Way, The Truth, and the Life. We believe in our heart but if we were convinced then we would want to convince others. Right? When someone is convinced something is right – commitment soon follows.
Many of us have become so well-adjusted to our culture that we fit into it without even thinking. God wants us to stop and think and listen. God wants us to use the brain he has given us. We really don’t know how to be Christ followers, we think we know. Some people think they got it all figured out. That’s a dangerous place to be because you are endangered of becoming a legalistic, you-think-you-know -it all -believer. I thought I knew how to be a husband. I soon realized I didn’t have a clue.
Many people think they know how to be a Christian but all they really know is how to behave in church or in public. We know how to judge others. We know how to act religious. We even know the Christian language. An observation I have made is that many of us were raised in church but not in Christ. In other words for many of us we have never really allowed God’s truths to change the way we think. We get sucked into pattern of this world thinking it is the gospel because it’s the way we have done it or believed it all these years. God doesn’t just want us to change the way we behave in public – He wants to change the way you think. If we are going to take following Christ personally, then we need to allow God to change the way we think.
If we are going to change the way we think – we need to fix our attention upon God. Because he will change you from the inside out.
If we are going to impact our culture we need to allow God to bring the best out of you. Our best comes when we are convinced (our mind has been renewed) because when we are convinced commitment soon follows. God gets our best when we are convinced that His truths are real.
How convinced are you? The more convinced you are produces a stronger commitment to embracing, changing, improving and making your mark on this world.
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