Heaven and Earth - tensions for headspace

The space in my head has limitations. It’s like a soft sponge cake (no insults please) that can only be cut up into so many portions before it runs out. Lots of issues and people are vying for their own slice and I sometimes I feel like I need a ‘feeding of the five thousand’ miracle – I would be delighted if I could have 12 baskets of leftovers! I know I have limitations and restrictions and like us all I can simply run out.

As well as the demands of others, I have my own wants and desires that place demands on me – managing these can be even more challenging. One of my simple pleasures in life is a compulsion to know as much about what is going on in the world as possible. This drives me to instinctively reach for my smart phone as soon as my alarm clock announces the dawn of a new day to catch up with the breaking day’s headlines. I scan through subjects of world affairs, UK politics, technological announcements, entertainment news, sporting headlines and the local news – all on my tiny hand held device before a single grain of caffeine has even participated in my morning.

Sure that I am now familiarised with the main things taking place in this world I make my way to the kitchen to rectify the caffeine situation. I promptly put on the radio where the issues I had just read are being discussed. After making the family breakfast, fulfilling other morning duties and delving into my daily bible reading I may even get chance to switch on the TV to see videos playing of these same headlines.

Throughout the day I have ‘twitter’ to help inform me of any further developments of the day’s news. On arriving home I will try and catch up with the evening news – most days there has been little change but I still find it fascinating hearing the headlines and seeing interviews with experts and reporters about latest perspectives. Later that night I may get an opportunity to watch the late news, observe the ‘Question Time’ mob and even watch ‘Paxman’ maul his interviewees.

Informed I may be. Aware of world developments, trends and perspectives may make me feel connected and of course this is not all together a bad thing. But I have a limited ‘cake’ of thinking space, energy and perspective and God has challenged me about how much of that I’m dedicating his way.

Colossians 3: 2 hit me between the eyes saying ‘Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth’. Now we all know the saying that says of someone that they’re ‘too heavenly minded for any earthly use’ but honestly that is usually meant for people who are just being a bit ‘wierd’ – you know the ones who insist their breakfast choice of ‘Weetabix’ was the result of a direct revelation from God or the odd socks they are wearing was the result of a prophetic instruction from the Holy Spirit. God wasn’t challenging me to join their ranks and become a ‘spiritual funny-bunny’ but he was challenging me whether I knew as much of what was taking place in His kingdom as I knew about this world. I may be up to date with likely trends across a multitude of areas but was I as aware of what God was planning on doing? Was my insight prophetic and insightful? Was the predominance of my thinking committed to setting my mind on ‘things above’?

I thought about just how much ‘cake’ I was giving to follow ‘earthly things’ and decided it was way too much – most of it was repetition of the same story anyway. For me it was limiting how often I would engage with the news but that may not be your issue. For you it may be something else – your work, your hobby, your sports team, your social media, your gadgets, your craft making – none of these things are wrong and I’m really not suggesting that they are – but maybe like me you feel challenged about whether you’re giving the best bit of your ‘cake’ to the ‘things that are above’. Look up and enjoy the start of a new day!