It's all in your head.
That phrase is typically used derisively—a dismissive diagnosis of someone's ailments. A man totters into his doctor's office, complaining of deep angst, sharp pains, lingering aches. Spasms twitch down his leg, his belly is on fire, his dreams are troubled. He's tormented by a host of symptoms. The doctor runs a battery of tests, asks a barrage of questions. Then he says this: "There's nothing wrong with you medically. It's all in your head."
That's not what I mean here. I mean our deepest problem before we got saved—the hostility between ourselves and God that took no less than the death of his Son to heal—was all in our heads. And I mean our deepest problem now that we are saved—the way we keep falling prey to old lies, succumbing to old habits, bowing before old idols, manifesting old attitudes—is all in our heads, too.
I best explain myself.
The Greek word for repentance means, at root, to change your mind. Think differently. See it otherwise. Reframe the picture. That change of mind, of course, is measured by a change of ways. We produce fruit in keeping with repentance. We think differently. Then we act differently. But what comes first is changing our minds. It's all in our head—or at least starts in our head—so we deal first with that.
The New Testament puts enormous emphasis on both the depravity and the renewal of our minds (there are several Greek words that English translations render into the single English word mind). Paul claims that our estrangement from God is first and most a battle in our heads: "Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior" (Col. 1:21), and traces the problem way back, when God gave the entire human race over to a "depraved mind" (Rom. 1:28). Jesus rebukes Peter—calls him Satan, no less—because "you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns" (Matt. 16:23).
The Bible says the renewal of our mind is key to newness of life: we now have "the mind of Christ" (1 Cor. 2:16), and so each of us have been "taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds." (Eph. 4:22-23). Before anything truly and deeply changes in us, first our minds must change: "be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Rom. 12:2).
These few biblical references barely scratch the surface. This theme runs throughout Scripture. It soaks through its pages, and once you see it, it's impossible to miss: that what happens in our minds affects everything. As we think, so we are. Thinking is destiny, at least as far as a Christ-like life is concerned.
The implications of this for pastoral ministry are huge. It means that the main work of discipleship is transformation through the renewing of our minds.
There are two bedrock disciplines here.
The first is to keep in step with the Holy Spirit, living a life of ongoing infilling by the Spirit. Invite him daily, hourly, to guide us into all truth; cultivate deep sensitivity to his promptings; hone reflexive quickness to go where he leads. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. So walk with him!
The second is to fix our eyes on Jesus. It is living a life of adoring contemplation of Christ. Paul says it best: "We all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit" (2 Cor. 3:18). The more we look to Christ, the more we look like Christ. His ways of thinking invade ours, so his ways of being pervade ours.
So look to him.
Our mind changes as we walk with Jesus, talk with Jesus, look to Jesus. And then—without hardly trying—everything else about us starts to change, too.
I guess I always knew this. I just had to change my mind.
Mark Buchanan teaches pastoral theology at Ambrose Seminary in Calgary, Alberta.
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