Day 22

“Complete my joy by being of the same mind… Have this mind among yourselves, which you have in Christ Jesus.” Phil. 2:2-5

Paul hopes believers will be unified, working together with one mind and purpose.  But this is a difficult challenge for any group of people with different ideas and strong personalities.  Is it even possible?

Paul is quite sure it is!  But it only happens if we share the mind of Christ.

Let’s say you’re tuning twenty pianos by ear to play in unison.  What’s the best way to accomplish this?  Suppose you play piano #1 to tune #2, then #2 to #3, #3 to #4, etc.  The problem is that each successive tuning can introduce a tiny variation.  And twenty minor variations can add up to a very large dissonance!  (It’s like the “telephone game” where a sentence becomes increasingly garbled as it is whispered around a circle of players.)

The best way to unify twenty pianos is to tune each one with the same tuning fork.  Then they all resonate together from the original tone.

In the same way, we stay in tune with each other when each of us allows his or her mind to be transformed by the mind of Christ. Christ gave up his divine privileges and took the humble position of a servant to save us.  When we have this “mind” among ourselves, we no longer look out only for our own interests, but take an interest in serving others too.

Dear Heavenly Father, 

Help us to be transformed and become like-minded with You.  Let us tune our hearts to sing Your praises, and join with others to be unified in Your spirit and love.  Amen.

-Alan Crandall