Have you ever heard this saying, “My mind is made up. Don’t confuse me with the facts?”
I always laugh whenever I find myself acting in the way for someone to say this saying back to me. Sometimes we resist change. Well, it is, I think, one of our human tendencies to stay away from anything that is going to change the kind of life we know for a long period of time. This tendency gets bad as we get older. Forget about learning how to use effectively the ever changing technology, we don’t want to learn how to effectively fry eggs. We just want to stay with that rugged, old, time consuming and outdated way of breaking the eggs and frying them on fire.
Well, I believe, it is sometimes okay and even healthy to resist change. For example, if you always read your Bible three times a day and something that comes to your life forces you to change your habit from three times a day to once a week, it is good to fight against that change.–
But “My mind is made up. Don’t confuse me with the facts” gets a little murky and ugly when it comes to learning the Word of God; finding the truth we didn’t know existed in our walk as Christians for decays. When we resist to learn, we become the most difficult people to deal with. No one can teach us anything. Teachable spirit is nowhere to be found in our veins. If we seek counseling, we definitely are not going there to be advised; but we go to give to that adviser a piece of our minds. If he agrees, we call him “the best counselor,” if not, “the worst counselor on the planet.”
Why? We’ve made up our mind regarding the issue we are dealing with and we ignore any facts, research findings as well as the Word of God. We have our own findings, which usually have no basis; and hear this: we also have Bible verses to back up our wrong viewpoints.
When we continue ignoring the truth that is waving at us from all directions, guess what we are becoming into? You guessed it! Ignorant people! That is where the word “ignorance” came from. We ignore the truth, the better way of doing things and we refuse to learn and we become ignorant people that nobody wants to listen to.
Let me give you one example: So, you try to tell someone that she shouldn’t get involved in premarital sexual stuff. She responds to you saying, “I’m not pregnant. That should tell you that I’m not doing sex.” For which you respond, “But all those kissing, touching and petting things you are doing with the man are like having sex and they defile your body. Those are the things the Word of God says, “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, – – -, because these are improper for God’s holy people.” She responds back, “It depends on how you interpret it. I like what I do with my life and I think everything is good and well with me. Don’t bother me with all these verses and your interpretations. ”
What do you say to that? You keep your peace to yourself, saying your prayers in your heart, “LORD, here she is. I give her to Your tender and loving but strong hands” and you move on.
What am I trying to say here? This: Let’s have an open mind; let’s always be ready to hear and learn. We will never get to that point in life where we say to ourselves, “I now know everything I need to know about God and His truth.” God is too big to be fully known by us; so is His truth! Let’s have a teachable spirit at all times; but let’s also be very careful to hold on to those first truths we’ve heard in the beginning; truths such as “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) – There is no other interpretation to this truth except – there is only one name we must be saved by and that name is Jesus Christ. ///