Is putting my vitamins in baggies and keeping them in my computer bag a healthy use of my devices? I figure if I’m constantly reaching for a phone or a computer and those vitamins are in there, I’ll remember to take them, right? But is there a vitamin I can put in that bag—an essential oil somewhere, maybe?—that will help me remember to actually swallow those vitamins?
Or even better, how about a pill to prevent me from searching for my phone while I’m holding it? Not that I ever do that. But please tell me you also do that.
What oil/vitamin/smoothie/herb/powder can help me stop doing that other thing I do? The one where I get on one of my devices to check the weather so I’ll know if I need a jacket, and then I notice a couple of emails, then I look at a meme or two, laugh at somebody’s funny tweet, read a poignant devotion, and then walk out of the house with no jacket. Can I take something for that?
While I’m whining about brain deficits and how to fix them, where’s just the right supplement—fruits, veggies, and various brain-boosters in a capsule?—to make it so I don’t jump out of my skin when I start to take a pic and find I accidentally left it in selfie mode? Also, why am I so startled by my own face? It’s not like I was making a duck face.
I wonder if I could remedy some of these device-related brain ails if I ate just the right kind of yogurt. Except that I’m not a big fan of yogurt.
Siri. Eat this yogurt for me.
Okay Google. Swallow my vitamins.
Why isn’t a vita-phone a thing? Compu-pills? It’s true, some “tablets” are harder to swallow than others. But it seems like that could uncomplicate things for me.
When it comes to devices for staying healthy spiritually, though, I wonder if our tendency is to make that a little more complicated than it needs to be too. It’s important. Life and death, peace or no peace kind of important. But not really complicated.
Paul tells us in Romans 8:5-6, “For those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their minds set on the things of the Spirit. Now the mind-set of the flesh is death, but the mind-set of the Spirit is life and peace.” (CSB)
The phrase “mind-set of the Spirit” in the Greek incorporates not only our mind, but also what we do with our mind. It includes our attitude, our way of thinking, our whole disposition. So to have that healthy “mind-set of the Spirit” is to have a mind that is constantly being influenced and shaped by the Holy Spirit of God. It means we have a mind like His. It’s one that worships Christ, honors God, humbly serves, reveres His Word and consistently loves on His people. And it boils down to doing all these things with God-conscious, Jesus-loving, Spirit-empowered thinking.
Devices will come and go. They can be great tools. Or sometimes terrible distractions. What will always make the difference is our mind-set.
There’s no pill or powder or potion or prescription. No salve, serum, or snake oil. Nope. Just Father-, Son-, Holy Spirit-thinking.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll feed my thinking by reading an extra devotion. And then I’m going back home to get my jacket.