Sharpening Your Saw: The Mind, Body, Soul, Spirit, Heart
In the last blog post, I posed the question: How does one begin to sharpen the self? When does one begin to sharpen the self? My answer pointed to the mind. One must sharpen the mind before one begins to sharpen the body, the heart, the soul, and or the spirit. What I’m proposing is not set in stone, nothing really is. Follow me here. When we’re sharpening the self, the mind comes first. Do you remember the iconic slogan: “A mind is a terrible thing to waste”? Coined in 1972 as the first major public-service campaign, designed to encourage support for 40 private black colleges and universities. The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) sparked the mind-sharpening statement to raise awareness in the nation; beautiful minds of talented, gifted, and ordinary Black people were being wasted. Why? Educational resources were lacking, inadequate, and so on. (I will not digress; there’s so much to say about the inequality of the educational system but that is not the point.)
Education was the motivation for the UNFC to promote the slogan. Education sharpens our minds and helps us think differently. We consider our physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional health in varied ways. For example, I remember my first physical education class as an undergrad. During that sixteen-week course, I learned to think about how to maintain a more active life to become physically fit and healthy. I attended fitness classes at a gym. I learned varied body sculpting routines and how to use workout machines. My mind was focused on the physical. The more I learned, the more confident I became. But it was the transformation of my mind, that caused me to consider exercising.
Even when it comes to my spiritual disciplines, you know prayer, bible study, meditation, even worship service, I had to train my mind to actively take part in these activities to sharpen my spiritual life, which of course continually sharpened my mind. The way I think about God. The way I read the bible, even the way I pray.
The mind is powerful that’s why it is a terrible thing to waste. What we think about ourselves and the world around us can bring us peace and love or suffering and pain. What we think about ourselves can destroy us or restore our existence. Perhaps, you heard that phrase “whatever you feed will grow, whatever you starve will die”? With that said: we must feed our mind, invest in our mind, sharpen our mind, first.
Image from Christian Expressions
And this sharpening of the mind as the first step to sharpening the self points to apostle Paul’s advice in Romans 12:2a says: “transform your mind, no longer conform to this world.” The Voice translation says: “Do not allow this world to mold you in its own image. Instead, be transformed from the inside out by renewing your mind.” If we are always thinking of what and how other people expect us to act, behave or speak, how then do we sharpen the self to be who God has purposed us to be? We have to think differently, renew our mind, change what we believe about ourselves and that starts in the mind, with the mind. The end result of renewing your mind, sharpening your mind is the ability to “discern what God wills and whatever God finds good, pleasing, and complete” (Romans 12:2).
So I leave you with this, when you awake in the morning look in the mirror and speak positive thoughts about something you do not like. Sharpen your mind to love that which you do not love about yourself.
And then let’s get ready for sharpening the heart. Because if the heart wants what the heart wants, does that mean we must sharpen the heart before sharpening the mind?
Until next time,
Angela