Five Smooth Stones

“Up” Your Thinking “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,” (Philippians 2:5 KJV). Grammatically, the word up is an adverb or a preposition, depending on its exact use. I am using my editorial freedom to change it into a verb within this context. Earlier in the book, we learned about the three phases of mind: Christ consciousness (mind), consciousness, and the subconscious phase of mind. As you will recall, the highest level of consciousness is also referred to as the Christ mind. It is always in tune with the Christ spirit within you and communicates through guidance, warnings, and ideas in your best interest and for your highest good. Thinking, the movement of ideas in the mind, is how we appraise and decide how to act and respond to these thoughts. We seek His face or practice his presence when we align our thoughts, decisions, actions, and reactions to the Christ mind. We emulate and demonstrate the qualities and attributes of God when we make choices imparted to us from Spirit through our Christ mind. This is how the Wayshower modeled living for us. His decisions and actions were in line with those of His Father. You have never read in the bible about Jesus worrying, making a mistake, having regret, over-spending, feeling abandoned, or having to give someone a piece of his mind. It is because he “up-ed” his thinking. He dwelt in the secret place, that high chamber of thinking we all have. He abided in the shadow or covering of God. He did not lower his thinking by relying on what he heard, felt, or saw through his conscious or subconscious phases of mind. He “up-ed” His thinking to the highest level. I love the story captured by Matthew about the temptation of Jesus by the tempter (metaphysically, His lowest state of consciousness). It’s a great demonstration from the Wayshower of what it means to “up” your thinking. “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting 40 days and 40 nights, He was hungry. The tempter came to Him and said, if you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread. Jesus answered, ‘it is written. Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ Then the devil took Him to the holy city and had Him stand on the highest point of the temple. If you are the Son of God, he said, throw yourself down. For it is written, He will command his angels concerning you and they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. Jesus answered him, ‘it is also written, do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ Again the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. All this I will give you, he said, if you will bow down and worship me. Jesus said to him, ‘away from me satan. For it is written, worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’ Then the devil left Him, and angels came and attended Him,” (Matthew 4:1-11 NKJV). My hand is literally shaking over the keys of my laptop thinking about the condition of the world had Jesus thought low and gave in to the temptations of the tempter. Life as we know it would not exist. It is critical not to ignore a very important lesson that is inter-nested in this story. The scripture says that Jesus had been fasting and was hungry when the tempter came. It is fascinating to me that when challenges of the human experience show-up (e.g., finances, illness, conflict with others, etc.) we resist “thinking up” and instead fall to the fray of the challenge or our lower selves. When we face challenges, low thinking can produce temptations that appear as solutions, opportunities, and even a chance of a lifetime. It becomes even more important in these situations to “up” your thinking and remember the promise: the Christ will never lead you to or leave you in temptation. When you “up” your thinking, you attract like “up thinkers” to you. Up thinkers are jovial and gregarious. Up thinkers are positive and see the glass full whether there is water in it or not. Up thinkers make you laugh and go out of their way to be helpful and supportive. They are encouraging and focus on the possible instead of the impossible. Most importantly, up thinkers are peace makers. They cannot help themselves. And this peace is uncommon and spiritual. It’s the kind of peace that Paul refers to being hard to conceive. “And the peace of God which passeth all understanding...,” (Philippians 4:7 ESV). Up thinkers bring a peace that makes others feel calm. All hell can be breaking loose around them, but they let nothing disturb them. People look at up thinkers and scratch their heads, questioning what matter of man is this? Why do I feel so calm and peaceful when you’re around? The opposite of up thinking is down thinking. These are the people we’d rather not deal with, at least for long periods of time. The glass is always empty whether there is water in it or not. We say to the down thinker “you are bringing me down” when their conversation is negative and sorrowful. Think about the last time you were invited to a party or social outing. After asking the date, time, and location, what’s the next question you ask? Who’s going to be there? If it’s a bunch or even one down-thinker, you probably choose not to attend. Just as up thinkers attract other up thinkers, down thinkers love to be around other down thinkers. Up thinkers make down thinkers incredibly uncomfortable. There is genuine pleasure to complain and opine among down thinkers. What would Jesus do? What did Jesus do? Jesus “up-ed” his thinking. What I know for sure is that surrounding myself with up thinkers helps to preserve and express this followership imperative by facilitating peace, harmony and happiness in my relationships.