(Matthew 18:9, ESV) 9 And if your eye causes you to sin,
tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye
than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.
Minnesota nice, can it really be defined? Many people who are not from Minnesota that
eventually make their way to the frozen Midwest talk about how friendly we
are. When walking on the street, you’ll
hear a “good morning” and a polite smile from a total stranger. When on an elevator, you’ll find yourself
having a conversation with someone about how cold it is outside and how much we
can relate. We are just a friendly
people, right?
After leaving the Purity conference, one analogy stuck in my
head. Men are visually stimulated. Throughout the day, living out my Minnesota
Nice character, I smiled at people, had conversations with strangers, an
outgoingness that was probably spent on getting everyone to like me. Because I am a man, I figured that all out on
my own, I, too, am visually stimulated by those things with which I surround
myself. I am visually stimulated through
commentary on the radio, because of experiences I have had in the past. I am visually stimulated through the smile of
the stranger, the billboards that are on the side of the road, the TV shows,
and movies that I watch. A specific takeaway
for me after the Purity conference was to work at starving my senses.
Starving your senses would include making sacrifices in your
life to help drive yourself toward becoming what God has asked us to be, and
that is spiritually pure disciples. As I
walked around the “Land of Beautiful People”, Target, an individual is surrounded
by a culture that fills your eyes, and I found myself incorporating the
starving your eyes technique, which looks like a data scientist that works for
the government. My head is focused on
the floor in front of me, I am hugging the wall looking socially disinterested,
where I recite Bible verses and use this time to meditate on what God is asking
me to focus. My Minnesota Nice mentality
was struggling with this: “People think
I am being a jerk. … They must think I am unfriendly,” I thought. These were
things constantly going through my mind.
Dang it, this struggle between wanting to be Minnesota Nice versus
working on my Spiritual Purity is driving me crazy! But then God hit me with a verse that
highlighted the weightiness of making this decision much easier. (Matthew 18:9, ESV)
9 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it
away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be
thrown into the hell of fire.
“Joshua, are you telling me that I should gouge out my
eyes?” YES! ... no, wait … no. Put it this way, 1 Corinthians 6:12, NIV says: “12
I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not
everything is constructive. When it
comes to our life, we do have the right to do anything, we have freedoms like
no other country. We have choices we
make on a daily basis that will affect what God thinks of us spiritually. My choices to cut things like Facebook, Clash
of Clans, TV shows, the radio in my car, are all rights that I have in my life
to do, yet, they were not beneficial to my spiritual purity. “Man, this guy sounds like a prude!” is the
non-verbal message I am receiving in my head from you right now. Well, I would rather give up my “Minnesota
Nice” mentality and develop spiritually pure disciplines than gouge my eyes
out. I may be a prude, but I am being a
prude for purity sake.
Dear Heavenly Father,
As I continue this journey towards spiritual purity, I ask
that you guide my heart, mind, body, and soul to make decisions in my life that
are beneficial for Your purpose in me, and not my selfish ambitions that I
cannot take with me. Help me to live out
your love, truth, honesty, and spiritual character in other ways in my life,
than just the “Minnesota Nice” mentality.
Help me to be a guide for my children, a honoring husband, and a pure
spirit for You. You have my attention,
and hopefully others will find it too. … Amen
God’s Peace - Joshua
And remember, “Everything you do, in word or deed, do these
things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father
through Him.” (Colossians 3:17)
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