Renewing The Mind (Part three): Playing Catch-Up

I have recently bought a flat. I've only been in since December. A week or so after I moved in, the previous owners, who had just moved a few miles across to the other side of town, contacted me with a text to say that one of their cats had escaped from his confinement and 'could I let them know if he turned up at my flat'. He answers, they said, to the name of Marmite.

I had all but forgotten about their text when 2 months later the cat flap that I thought I had locked on arrival was batted open with a mighty thwack, at about 11pm and nearly caused me to have a heart attack. It was dark at the time and I didn't mange to identify the culprit. I think my scream had scared him off quite effectively. It was not even until the next day that I thought that it might have been 'Marmite'.

Over the next few days though, the culprit paid several more visits. Though he wouldn't let me near him I took a picture and sent a text to the previous owner:

It was indeed Marmite. They came round to look for him but he had disappeared.

Eventually, a day or so later, armed specially with ham and Chicken Dreamies, I managed to coax Marmite into my house where he duly freaked out and did a Tasmanian Devil impression. In the next hour while I waited for his owners to arrive (presumably with heavy duty gloves, Catch Pole and/or Tranquillisers) I saw a quiet and gradual meat induced transformation take place in Marmite's mood. By the time they arrived he was sitting on my lap and taking treats directly from my hand.

I was especially pleased about Marmite being reunited with his family not least because they had 2 little girls who had been very upset at his disappearance. I had even prayed about it on their behalf because I know how hard these early experiences of loss can hit kids. And after 2 months, through all the snow we had as well, his return really felt miraculous.


Marmite's address had changed. He just hadn't learnt that yet.

And I know how easy it is to forget your new address.

On the day I moved in, I drove to the estate agents to collect my keys, and then, on pure auto pilot, I started to drive back to my old house. My address had changed too, but I hadn't learnt that yet. Fortunately it didn't take me as long as it took Marmite!


This demonstrates to me so clearly the need for renewing of the mind.

Billy Graham used to love to use a quote that he adapted from  D. L. Moody:

Someday you will read or hear that Billy Graham is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it. I shall be more alive than I am now. I will just have changed my address. I will have gone into the presence of God.

And I love that quote too. But, you see, the reality is that, in a sense that we sometimes struggle to comprehend, this address change, in some senses, has already taken place:

Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus~ Eph 2:4-6 

Paul is very aware that we seem to experience some cognitive dissonance on this front. So much so that He asks in his epistle to the Colossians, 'Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules'. In other words 'why are you behaving as though you haven't died with Christ, as though you weren't raised with him?'

In an attempt to redress the balance he tells them in Chapter 3:

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.  For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.~ Col 3:1-4

In other words, you are a citizen of heaven. You live there now! Get that into your head. Start thinking in a heavenly way and desiring heavenly things.

The rest of the chapter talks about what the outworking of that looks like.

The Cat when it is moved (and they don't naturally move) must have a period of confinement. It is an immersive treatment used to readjust their thinking about where their territory is. If this time doesn't take place they are prone to attempt to go back to their old abode. Sound familiar? It is, in a sense, a time for the cat's mind to be 'renewed'.

I don't know what your experience is, but the time when I first came to Christ was very similar to 'cat camp', in that I was immersed in scripture and teaching and church life. I was reshaping my thinking all over the place because so much of it conflicted with Christ. I think this time has set me in good stead. But it is not a complete work. Not yet.

We need to continually retrain our brains so we know where we live and who we are now. We are encouraged to delight in God's words and meditate on them day and night. Why? So we are immersed in the truth, and the truth sets us free. And so we do not forget, where we live, or who we are, or, more importantly, who HE is. We must understand these truths, that are objective and indisputable; that they are truth, but that our minds, just like Marmite's, need to play a little catch-up.