THE MIND

If someone asks me, “What do you have in mind,” the person is not interested in the contents of my brain, which is where our thoughts are stored. They (he/she) want to know what I wish to do, or to clarify what I have just said.

Dorothy Sayers, in her book The Mind of the Maker (Harper and Row, 1941), reminds us that thinking with the mind is not simply an illusion. She quotes Sir Arthur Eddington (Nature of the Physical World) as follows: “It is because the mind, the weaver of illusion, is also the only guarantor of reality that reality is always to be sought at the base of illusion.”

With our “mind” we have the capacity to understand spiritual truth, to see (understand) good and evil. It is our mode of expressing how we think, as we judge, feel, desire, and so on. In our “mind” we imagine, we dream, and we reason. 

We speak of God as if he has a “mind” like our own, but that is of course a metaphor and the only way we can talk reasonably with one another about Him. As Sayers puts it, all language is metaphorical language, and we express ourselves with modes of time: “Time is so intimately the mode of our own existence that it is equally difficult to conceive Time apart from Being or of Being apart from Time” (p.100). Time becomes a metaphorical in concepts, with expressions such as, “We have time on our hands,” “We are living on borrowed time,” We “kill time,” we are “wasting time,” and “time waits for no man,” because we may be in the “eleventh hour,” and so forth.

As humans, we reason with our “mind” and have our memories stored in our brain. Our cognitive functions are associated with the mind and according to Romans 12.2 it is not only our way of thinking about God and how he functions but is also that part of us that needs to be renewed by his power and Spirit.

We associate our “mind” with our “brain,” that intricate and powerful three-pound blob inside our head, because it controls and contains everything we think, reason, and imagine. I read (on hopkinsmedicine.org) that “The brain is a complex organ that controls thought, memory, emotion, touch, motor skills, vision, breathing, temperature, hunger and every process that regulates our body. Together, the brain and spinal cord that extends from it make up the central nervous system, or CNS.” That description seems like a “no-brainer” to me. But do I control it or does it control me? I work with my brain, and it works with me—we can’t get along without each other!

Does thinking about this take “a load off your mind,” or do you put it in the “back of your mind” and not care to think about it. Long term musing can “blow your mind” to such an extent that you find your mind is “boggled” and you end up with “two minds.” Not a pretty picture, especially if you have already given someone else a “piece of your mind.”

When we worked among the Kewa people of Papua New Guinea, the equivalent for mind, or at least part of it as we express the concept in English, was covered by the word kone. The word has a broad range of connotations, including intention, behavior, thoughts, and customs. But these were not stored in the “brain.” Rather, they defined who the person was. A little child did not yet have kone and could be excused from doing many things older kids were expected to do. We have six pages of illustrations in our dictionary related to kone.

One could remember, covet, pretend, imitate, think, feel, and forget with the kone, but having kone really represented the way the Kewa people lived. “That’s our kone (our way)” was a common expression. It is similar to saying “That’s his way,” or “That’s the American way,” without any clear or immediate definition about what we mean.

The Kewa concept of kone helps me to understand how people of another culture conceive of the “mind.” I perceive my mind as not being in my brain, but rather as the way I think and live.

When David gave Solomon the plans for the Temple (1 Chronicles 28.12) “He gave him the plans of all that the Spirit had put in his mind,” indicating that it was from the righteous God “who probes minds and hearts” (Psalm7.9).

Animals apparently have minds—at least we humans act like they do. Nebuchadnezzar, who was king at the time of Daniel, was given an animal’s mind because “his heart became arrogant and hardened with pride.” (Daniel 5) In this instance, the heart and mind were connected.

Even Peter’s mind was confused at one point, and he was told by Jesus that he did “not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” (Mark 8.33)

Our minds need to be changed as we live in this world. Paul challenged and encouraged us when he said, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12.2) We will experience God’s peace, which “will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”

The “mind of the Maker” is the way He (because Father is masculine) goes about His business. 

Karl Franklin