Don’t Go In The Gutter!

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.

Philippians 4:8 NKJV

Suppose I decided to go bowling with a friend who wanted to play the game without the gutter guards. If you knew how bad of a bowler I am, you’d know I’d start sweating! Do you know the first thing that would start going through my mind? “Whatever you do, DON’T go in the gutter!” As you can also probably imagine… that’s exactly what I’d do on my first turn. The ball would naturally follow what my eyes were already focused on. The same can be said of our spiritual minds too, though. We can get so worried about not going in the gutter mentally that that’s exactly what we end up doing… Focusing on all the negative things we’re supposed to be avoiding.

Thankfully, the apostle Paul proposes a straightforward solution for this dilemma in Philippians 4: Whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely… meditate on these things. What if when I went bowling, instead of worrying about avoiding gutter balls, I actually started focusing on the goal: knocking down the pins at the other end of the alley? It wouldn’t cure all my bowling woes, but it would certainly help my chances! The same is true spiritually. Our minds naturally need something to think about, whether that’s something positive… or avoiding something negative. We might as well try to follow Paul’s advice and knock over a few pins of justice, purity, and goodness while we’re at it!

Hannah