Mindful Monday: On Outsmarting Evil

On Mindful Monday, my readers and I practice the art of pausing, TRYING to be still, or considering, ever so briefly, the big picture. We're hoping this soul time will provide enough peace of mind to get us through the week!

In the Gospel of Mark (1:21-28), we read:

Then they came to Capernaum, and ... in their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit; he cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are - the Holy One of God!" Jesus rebuked him and said, "Quiet! Come out of him!" The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him. All were amazed and asked one another, "What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him."

The unclean spirits obeyed him.

Now that gives me hope.

Because lately it seems like I'm surrounded by unclean spirits ... I run into more of them than pairs of dirty underwear in my son's room. Everywhere I turn, it seems, I'm being presented with an opportunity to buy into the lie of greed, jealousy, lust, and selfishness. And I'm not just talking about the billboard of a seductive woman in black lingerie (or a red, silk dress) pouring a glass of Absolut vodka for her George Clooney look alike. The more dangerous lies are the more subtle ones that whisper in my ear "if you simply do this ... you will make it to the promised land of happiness."

So sometimes I succumb. I do it. I tell a half-truth. I gossip about a friend. I agree to write a piece for an online dating service that I don't feel all that great about because they pay well. Only to find out these things don't bring me happiness and peace. On the contrary, they bring up breakfast. Because now I feel guilty, and dirty, and bad about myself.

I've become more cognizant evil's hold over me these days: when all my attempts to break free from an obsessive loop of thoughts fails, when my body takes orders from the very thoughts I'm trying to exorcise, so that I'm convinced if I don't acquire the object I desire--a person, place, or thing--than I'm dead to the world. I don't matter anymore.

But I also know the antidote to this spiritual warfare inside my soul.

Prayer.

It doesn't have to be perfect, and Lord knows my prayers aren't. But if I only turn to Him as soon as the faulty message registers, then I have a better chance of outsmarting it before my body has heard it and starts producing Cortisol (the stress hormone ... i.e. really bad stuff). If I can ask God to command that bugger to get the heck out of my mind and soul and heart, it will. Moreover, if I commit myself to prayer, God's word will get my attention, even in the busyness of my day. Because it's like the benevolent creator has gotten a hold of one of those annoying voice transformers that you don't want to give your kids for Christmas. Yeah, now you know what I'm talking about.

With God on my side, I can outsmart even the most manipulative attempts of darkness to take over. By talking to God (sometimes CONSTANTLY), I can initiate the downward pull of Christ that spiritual author Henri Nouwen writes about:

Although this spiritual life may well seem enigmatic, intangible, and elusive to us who live in a scientific age, its fruits leave little doubt about the radical transformation it brings about. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness, and self-control are indeed the qualities of our Lord himself and reveal his presence in the midst of a world so torn apart by idolatry, envy, greed, sexual irresponsibility, war, and other sin ... It is not hard to distinguish the upward pull of our world from the downward pull of Christ.

We will never be without struggle. But when we persevere with hope, courage, and confidence, we will come to fully realize in our innermost being that through the downward road of Christ we will enter with him into his glory. So let us ... resist our temptation, and be ever committed to a life of ongoing formation.