Do you ever feel fuzzy-headed? You just can’t seem to think clearly. Your ability to focus is impaired. That is the way I have felt for the past two weeks. I have been battling the flu, which drained me both physically and emotionally. Yesterday afternoon, as I struggled to pull my sermon together for Sunday, I just couldn’t concentrate. I desperately needed to clear my head. So I went home and took a run. It was great! As I was running several points that I had been stuck on with my sermon came together. My focus was sharpened and my head cleared.
We all need to clear our heads from time to time. It is like rebooting our computer. Things get all jumbled up and we need to clear the cache and start over. The same is true with our brains. From time to time we need to step away for awhile and let things settle.
Jesus needed times to clear his head. Before Jesus was about to choose the twelve disciples he got away from the crowd by himself to pray and think. After Jesus fed the 5000, there was much pressure put on him to give in to the will of the crowd. John records Jesus’ response. Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself. (John 6:15) We don’t often think of Jesus struggling to sort things out. We assume that he always knew exactly what was going on and what to do. Yet the scripture at least hint at the reality that Jesus needed regular times to clear his head and get back in touch with the Father.
The Apostle Paul is also an example of needing time to clear his head. After his amazing conversion experience Paul took three years to sort things out. He wrote about it in his letter to the Galatians.
For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus. Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter and stayed with him fifteen days. Galatians 1:13-18
We all need times to pull away from the demands of life and clear our heads. With all of the pressure to conform to the values of our world we can lose our focus. Like Jesus, we need to regularly pull away and reconnect with the Father. Like with our computers, we need to make sure that we are putting the right input in. We need the time to clear out the junk and replace it with that which is of greatest value.
In Philippians 4:8 Paul challenges us to fill our minds with godly thoughts. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things. The word Paul uses for think about means to ruminate or meditate on something. For most of us this means disengaging from the demands of normal life long enough to clear our heads and refocus.
So why don’t you take a run or a walk and invite God to clear your head and reboot your mind.
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