Set Your Mind

Woke up this mornin' with my mind, stayed on Jesus.
Woke up this mornin' with my mind, stayed on Jesus.
Woke up this mornin' with my mind, stayed on Jesus.
Hallelu, hallelu, hallelujah.

Woke Up this Mornin'
African-American Spiritual, Public Domain

The spiritual “Woke Up this Mornin’” is a paraphrase of Colossians 3:1-11. (And Romans 8:5. And Philippians 3:19. And 1 Chronicles 22:19, Ezekiel 40:4, and Romans 12:2, for that matter!) It is a common theme. Okay, not a paraphrase, but a reiteration of the invitation to keep one’s mind “stayed on Jesus.” Throughout the scriptures is the idea that our task as followers of Jesus is to set our minds to the task of following. It seems simple enough. Focus your mind; turn your thinking toward following, and then all kinds of goodness and growth will follow. The power of positive thinking, someone once said. “Think it, imagine it, and it is yours” was a popular mantra not too long ago. Easy peasy.

Well, simple, certainly. But easy? We live in a distracted and distractable world. There are voices aplenty, images that besiege us constantly, ideas that surround. Even those who haven’t been diagnosed with some form of attention deficit find it hard to stay on the task of keeping their minds stayed on Jesus. We hear so many messages attempting to tell us that this or that is the most important thing in our lives. If we do this thing, if we buy that stuff, if we live in this manner, if we look like that, then all will be well, we are told. Not just well, but extreme; our lives will be full of passion and power and fulfillment. Whew, it is exhausting, this mind-focusing thing.

The task, therefore, is one of swimming against the tide, or as Paul might say, changing orientation. “Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Col. 3:2 NRSV). That’s helpful, isn’t it? But what does it mean? That we are supposed to go around with our heads in clouds, not paying attention to the world around us? That doesn’t seem effective, let alone safe. What’s that cliché? So heavenly minded as to be no earthly good— something like that. Is that what Paul is asking of us? That we set our minds in such a way that we are disconnected from life?

It might seem so. He goes on to tell us to put to death anything earthly. And then he gives us a list of the kinds of things he’s talking about. And we would have to agree that these things need to be done away with or turned away from. Put to death? Seems harsh. Necessary, perhaps, but harsh. And then there is a second list. But he isn’t quite as harsh with that one. “Get rid of,” he says, not put to death. And what are we getting rid of? “Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth (and your pen? Or keyboard?) and do not lie to one another…” (Col 3:8-9 NRSV).

So, we can certainly overanalyze, but it seems we’re asked to put to death those things that reside in us, the broken passions, lusts of various kinds. And we’re asked to get rid of ways of interacting with others, ways of talking to or about others. We are supposed to set our minds on things that are above, not things that match what we see around us all the time. We are to interact with even our enemies differently from what seems to be a matter of course around us today.

That’s what “setting your mind above” means, not that we are wrapped up in heaven, but that we live as though we were already there in how we treat one another, how we respond, how we build community, and through acts of compassion and caring. When we set our minds on things that are above, we are more than useful; we are transforming the world in which we live. We are raising a standard of behavior and a respect for the human creation as a way of giving honor to God.

In the end, of course, this is beyond us. This focus, this setting of the mind, is more than we can handle on our own. Thankfully, there is nothing that we need to do on our own. Indeed, the glory of the discipleship path is that once we embark, we are never alone. Even in this task of setting one’s mind, there is a helper. There is a presence that will invite and encourage and will direct our focus.

There is a version of the spiritual “Woke Up this Mornin’” that concludes with the verse that says

Jesus, the captain in your mind, stayed on Jesus,
Jesus, the captain in your mind, stayed on Jesus,
Jesus, the captain in your mind, stayed on Jesus.
Hallelu, hallelu, hallelujah.

Jesus, the captain, is the one in and through the Spirit, who can help us in the ongoing task and joy of setting our minds on things that are above.