Most of us try to change our lives by changing our behavior. We make a list. We try harder. Then we wobble.
Lucas Kitchen saw that pattern in the Christian music scene, in youth group, and in church. As long as you behaved, you belonged. What was missing was a changed mind. In Things Above, he walks through Colossians and argues that Paul never starts with a roster of rules. He starts with how you think.
If you try to focus on walking worthy without focusing on your mindset, then your walk won’t be worthy. It will be wobbly.
Paul prays that the Colossians would be filled with the knowledge of God’s will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. You cannot decide to bear fruit any more than a shaded tree can. The conditions have to be right. For a believer, those conditions are a mind renewed by Scripture, fellowship, and prayer.
Work on your walk and your walk will be wobbly. Work on your mindset and your walk will be worthy.
Colossians 3:2 is the hinge: Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. Character is what happens when Christ is on your mind, one thought at a time.
If you have been trying to walk a straighter line by grit alone, Colossians offers a different path. Get the book. Read it slowly.
Adapted from Lucas Kitchen, Things Above.
