November 09, 2009
Retaining
When a child makes a mistake for which there is no excuse an adult will often say, ‘You know better than that.’ That same thought crosses my mind when I learn of a believer who has abandoned the faith. It’s difficult to see someone turn away from the Lord and personally, I just want to understand how they got off track. I want there to be an explanation, a reason or an excuse. I don’t want to think that they are willfully turning away and yet Paul says there is no excuse, “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him… Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.” (Ro 1:21, 28 NIV)
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2 comments:
Gail;
-----When I attended a Pentecostal church during my Senior year of High School, I rejected their animosity towards the field of psychology. Not that I agreed with psychology’s errors and misperceptions about the spiritual nature of man, but that I disagreed with the Pentecostal’s assessment of the total uselessness of psychology. Much of psychology is quite useful in understanding man’s relationship with God. And you have struck upon one principle of psychology that is quite useful to know. I have tried to recall the proper term to use here, but for the time being, I cannot. So I will use a term from the world of computer programs because it is so similar: applets. As a computer user interacts with the main segments of a computer program, directing the computer to perform different functions, very specific program pieces are called upon by the main program to perform very specific functions. As we live our lives, our minds operate in the same way. For instance, when you look down and notice your shoe is untied, a longstanding applet is brought into your mind as you begin the process of tying your shoe. Every finger motion of the process is directed by the applet as your mind subconsciously performs the task as it is remembered, then another applet enters your mind as you arise and begin walking again. This is the same principle we all experience occasionally when we leave a room to get something, and can not remember what we went to get when we arrive in the different room. The different room has called forth an applet that has not in its experience what we went there to get. Upon returning to the former room, the applet returned by that room’s environment has in its experience what we wanted, and we remember. How many times you must return to the first room may be a good measure of sanity, or sobriety.
-----But unlike computers, these applets are themselves subject to alteration by further experiences. There is one counter at Abel’s Ace Hardware where I have for two months been experiencing a flawed applet. Invariably, when I am asked for my member card, I give them my phone number with two of the digits transposed. This does not happen anywhere else in town, nor at any of the other counters there. Every time at that particular check-out, we go through the frustration of why the account returned by their system is not mine before I realize and apologize for having transposed those two digits.
-----Our glorifying God and giving Him thanks for all things keeps Him built into all of the developing applets of our minds as we progress through life’s new experiences. Should we fail to carry with us our awareness of Him and His involvement in every aspect of our being, the new applets of our minds will develop without the involvement of His Word and its principles. Moreover, if we fail to maintain the accuracy of our knowledge of His Word, not only will its involvement in our developing applets be as flawed as is our knowledge of it, but also the subtle changes happening to our existing applets by new experiences will be vulnerable to increasing flaw.
-----I do not know how extensive these flaws must become in my own mind until God no longer recognizes it as belonging to His principles, let alone what that condition might be in another’s mind. I only know that He graciously gives me time to get my applets as straight as I can, and that I need to be as concerned as I can be to handle each with care.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
P.S.
-----The psychology term came back to my mind yesterday. They call it "schema".
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