Stuck In Your Mind

22 Sep

“Only this I want: But to know the Lord 
and to bear his cross, so to wear the crown he wore”
~ Dan Schutte

Yesterday morning, someone came to me singing a partial song.  He asked me if I knew what the title of the song was because he had been singing it to himself for the past couple of days.  I told him right away, “Only This I Want”.  It’s a song that we sing at the parish on a somewhat regular basis.  It is a moving song that really makes you contemplate our relationship with God and how it can be deepened when we carry our crosses.

As he left my office, I thought to myself, “That’s a good song to have stuck in your mind.”  We have all had those experiences, haven’t we?  I know that I have.  I have even told people on occasion, “Quick.  Sing me a song so that I can get the one that’s stuck in my mind out.”  It can drive you stir crazy to have something like the Hokey Pokey stuck in your head, that’s for sure!

We need to have thoughts of the Lord stuck in our mind.  Songs, favorite scripture stories, memories of our own experiences: these, and many others, help to keep us rooted in Christ, rooted in God.  Without them, our minds could quickly turn to something else and latch on that instead.  Better to ruminate on the Lord than on the world.

So, how can we make sure that we do that, that we keep our minds on the Lord?  It doesn’t just happen, you know.  All of a sudden a song or a thought doesn’t “pop in”.  If we never think of the Lord, if we do not pray, if we do not participate in worship and sing songs of praise, there would be no reason for those thoughts to come into our minds.  It is only when we do those things on a regular basis that they swirl around our thoughts.

Do you want to know the Lord?  Be busy about His works rather than your own.  Doing so, you will meet Him in the people you serve.

FAITH ACTION:  Keep your thoughts fixed on the Lord today rather than on the distractions that inevitably present themselves to us.