About Me

My photo
I am a pastor and a clinical psychotherapist. My life's passion is defining healthiness from a human perspective and paralleling it to the holiness of God, divine perspective. Shifting perspectives creates a paradigm that is alongside of rather than over and against. The parakalein of God and the paradoxes of humanity are redefined. Humanity is all about winning and yet we are losing ground everywhere. Divinity is all about letting go of the desire to win and the fear of loss. The Divine embraces the world with loving care regardless of anything.

Search This Blog

Mind over Matter

Posted by Don Paine

A year and a half ago, I fell on ice and twisted my knee so badly that I severed the small tendon in my left knee.  It was so painful, I was unable to walk for some time.  Surgery was not advised.  Learn to live with it, was the advice.  I just hate that as living with something puts that thing in charge.  Resisting the part of me that thought I would never run again, I proceeded to exercise the knee, walk in increasing pace, and think optimistically.

My thirteen year old grandson was visiting with us from Seoul Korea and he was telling me, "It is about mind over matter".  I chided him some then acknowledged that many times our minds think negative and work against us and if we could get our minds to think more positively they would help us achieve more than we ever thought possible.

This morning I was running with a friend much younger than I and I told him, I was more of a walker these days.  I had built up my knee and it was feeling very good but I had not sustained more than a 1/2 mile jogging while doing 12 mile walks.  I began to jog with him at a slow and comfortable pace.  We talked as we moved along.  Because my focus was not on what I was afraid I could not do, my focus shifted to what I could do.  I ran a slow pace but pain free for the first time since my accident.  Why today and with a friend? Was I able to run and not grow weary!

I forgot about the problem and just ran.  Maybe that is the secret of mind over matter.  Just do it, and it will surprise you what you can do.  It is so easy to focus on a problem, a pain, or a perspective that is uninspired.  It is discipline, dedication, and devotion that turns eyes to see beyond and through whatever is, to all that you can be, become and do.

Maybe it is what Paul meant when he said, "Let this mind be in you".  The mind of Christ never saw an obstacle without seeing a way around it,  a problem without seeing a solution, or a cloud of despair without seeing a way through it.  Nothing matters in life except your mind yielded to  God and for all others and yourself.

0 comments:

Post a Comment