The new mind

I had a call from my son. “The light won’t work.” I attempted to explain what he needed to do over the phone. Yes, he’d already bought replacements, but they wouldn’t work. He would check the fuses. Light was eventually forthcoming and my expertise appreciated and affirmed. Before they left home I wanted my sons to be able to change a tyre, check oil and water, change a light bulb and replace a fuse, cook edible food, go to church without being harassed, drive safely and always remember how much we love them.

Despite my desire to see them have these survival skills, they learned so much from school, their friends, basketball, soccer, cricket coaches and friends. They excelled me at maths, struggled with wordcrafting and pretty well enjoyed life to the full on the way to growing up. They have quizzed me about my voting patterns, asked for fatherly advice about their family roots, queried my thoughts and feelings on a thousand things – and put their hands out for this and that.

There is a balance to what you do as a parent. They will also do things that will make you cringe, make your hair grey or advance your need for various therapies. The skills you passed on or those they learned elsewhere may not be adequate or sufficient. They may fall on their faces, write off a car, lose a friend, fail in a relationship.

In writing to the Romans (12:1 – 2) Paul gently advises, ‘Do not model yourselves on the behaviour of the world around you, but let your behaviour change, modelled by your new mind.’ He reminds us that while we are living in the world, what surrounds us is transient and passing. The new mind is one that possesses skills for the future of creation itself. It is one in which faith in Jesus is lived out though care for the environment, the poor, the elderly, the disabled, the dispossessed, the imprisoned, those who mourn. The new mind moves well beyond the world which surrounds us and helps us enter into the lives of those for whom justice and prosperity appear to have forsaken.

These skills are here now for the learning. Maybe they are not in a curriculum document, nor are they capable of being assessed A to E in a plain English report, but they are vital for the mission of Jesus and the survival of the humanity.