The power and role of the mind in personal development and transformation has been a continual thing. On one extreme is the logic that “we create our life by thinking it up.” We can change our state simply by thinking differently. On the other extreme is that our thinking has little to do with the world we live in. We can’t change anything whether we think differently or not. Of course, I land somewhere in the middle.
I have experienced a lot of truth to the power of perspective. Not in the way that I can willfully shift my perspective to experience a new life, but in experiencing a perspective shift and the consequential new life that comes from it.
While the actual shift in perspective isn’t something I can necessarily control, something that I have found to be within my control is my focus. What are the kinds of thoughts that I give attention to? I’ve found that if I focus on the negative aspects of a situation they will seem to grow. The hardness gets harder, the weightiness gets heavier, and feeling of being stuck grows. Things bind up. However, if I focus on the positive aspects of a situation, even a challenging situation, those positive aspects will seem to grow. The hardness gets softer, the weightiness gets lighter, and I feel a little more mobile. Things loosen up. Not that the reality of the situation has necessarily changed, but how I am in it has.
Notably this is aligned with the desire, which I have, to know the truth of the situation. What is really happening here? I want to know. I don’t want to blind myself with contrived positivity, nor flagrant catastrophizing. I want to know what is really going on.
This is an important idea when thinking about the next proposition of Psalm 23.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.
We’re back to hearing from writer about the things that his Lord, the good shepherd does for him. Two of the lines have to do with receiving – and receiving something good and profound. And the last line has to do with the state that naturally flows from that experience. Let us take each line, one at a time.
A Table
First, the table. Have you ever felt you had to wait before receiving something good. Before I can rest, I have to finish this work. Before I can eat, I have to complete a task. Before I can be at ease, I need the danger I’m experiencing to subside. Before I can experience a life of plenty, or even enough, I need the source of this point of stress to go away.
The real or perceived threats to our lives can have the same effect – that is they prevent us from communing with the good shepherd and experiencing the life that he might have for us. The fear of what is, or what might be, keeps us from seeing another reality. It might be true that war is surrounding us, and there is a tangible threat to our life. It might also be true that there is an opportunity to be a beacon of peace in the midst of that threat – that you might recognize, rejoice in, and leverage for the sake of good, the provisions of life that you maintain for every day you are not taken as a target. The opportunity, recognition, rejoicing, and leverage would be beyond us if we were consumed with the real threat that stood before us.
Before My Enemies
What would it look like to be invited for dinner while all your enemies were present? Could you enjoy the meal? Again, it isn’t the expectation that you will host yourself for dinner, but rather that you are on the receiving end of this invitation. The thing that is striking here is that the invitation doesn’t wait for the enemies to be away. On the contrary, the table is set in the presence of your enemies. Can you imagine if you take an invitation to dine and in the same place – although maybe not at the same table – was everyone who ever betrayed you, treated you with malice or contempt, or wished or caused you pain? Oof, now that’s a guest list.
My first inclination would be to run away. I wouldn’t want to have anything to do with any of those cats – except maybe for my host. My host could convince me, that if I kept my attention on him, I could actually enjoy the meal and his company.
Anointing
Anointing is an old word. It speaks to being set apart, chosen, in particular religious contexts explicitly for God’s purposes. The anointing of one’s head is symbolic not only of the purpose but is part of the preparation for the purpose. If you have been chosen for a particular journey – a new job, project, or role in life (like parent or caretaker), perhaps – there is preparation to get you ready for the new role. Some of that happens on the job so to speak. The anointing of one’s head would be the thing that happens before the gig even starts.
Notably, here we see again that this isn’t something that we are to do ourselves. It is done to us. We are chosen by a chooser. We are set apart by someone who draws us apart from everything else that is going on.
My Cup Runs Over
Sitting at a table, ready to eat, being chosen and set apart from everyone and everything else for the sake of the One who is love – this is the scene. It’s deeply personal and quite intimate. It’s about you. Not the cat next to you one way or the other. If we can bear with this intimacy and the love that flows through it, the vision that is presented is a cup that is running over. Plainly, we don’t have enough space in us to contain the amount of love that comes with this relationship.
Here’s another thing to consider. A cup that overflows as it is continually being filled, naturally causes a mess. The water goes everywhere. It surely doesn’t stay in the cup. It is not a tidy or controlled situation. It is an overflow. We might think that receiving love as this activity that must be done just so, but this is not the case here. The receipt of love, in this case at least, is an overflow – an unending pouring into, until what is being poured in has nowhere to go but out again, spilling over into every situation, activity, and relationship we might find ourselves in.
I guess the question is, can we bear to sit at this table and have that cup?
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