The Secret to a Better Attitude

Note to readers: I’m still buried, but my Editor-in-Chief, Dan Roloff, asked me to post my notes from the staff devotional I led yesterday. So here they are. If you haven’t been to Dan’s blog in awhile, it’s worth a look. His posts have a lot of substance, but are still bite-sized in length. Unlike this one…

I’ve been thinking about our categories on TheHighCalling.org a bit lately. Starting with the first one from the left: Attitude. We even have a vision statement for helping people understand the importance of attitude:

Oswald Chambers says, “Moods don’t go by praying; moods go by kicking them.” Our words and actions come out of our attitudes. We shouldn’t let circumstances shape our perspective. Instead, we can use a good perspective to shape our circumstances.

That sounds nice, doesn’t it? So I was wondering. Is it biblical? Are we relying on some trendy truth to assemble that vision or does it flow from the eternal truth of the Bible?

The concept of attitude is hard to find in the Bible. It seems to be more of a 20th and 21st century concept, but two words stuck out as I was browsing through my Bible programs.

• phroneo – from verses like Romans 12:1-3. (You can see where that word appears in the Greek by going to the Blue Letter Bible and scrolling down to the Strong’s Concordance for phroneo)
• ennoia – from verses like Hebrews 4:12.

Dan is interested in phroneo, but that verse in Hebrews got into my head.

You see, the writer of Hebrews tells us how to keep our attitudes in check. He writes, “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (4:12).

Without looking at the context, this sounds like a simple call to study the Bible. The word of God “judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” But look at all of chapter four when you get a chance. It is a chapter about people who don’t obey God’s call to enter into his rest.

Earlier in the passage, the writer discusses Joshua, concluding that he was not able to lead God’s people into rest. Barnes’ Notes explain that “Joshua did give them a rest in the Promised Land; but it was not all which was intended, and it did not exclude the promise of another and more important rest.”

Growing up, I learned a lie about rest that I’m still trying to unlearn. I was taught that the Promised Land was an archetype for heaven. “To Canaan’s land I’m on my way, where the soul of man never dies.” I’m not going to quibble about the theology of these songs, but to my young brain they meant that God’s rest was something that came after I died. Salvation was a ticket to heaven.

In fact, I thought of heaven like a big ski resort because I loved to ski. When I got saved, baptized, prayed the prayer, got Jesus, whatever language or ritual you prefer to label it with, I knew I had a ticket to the resort. I got my lift pass. But I’d have to spend the rest of my life waiting for the resort to open.

Even worse, I didn’t grow up with any sense of eternal security. I was taught that my lift pass could be taken away if I wasn’t good. That’s a scary burden for a teenager, let me tell you. Thankfully, I didn’t think about it too much.

What I did was work much too hard. I figured if I just worked hard enough, I’d prove to God that I deserved to keep my lift ticket. My faith would be real through my works–just like James says.

I’ve heard that Martin Luther wanted to rip James out of the Bible. And to be honest, I understand why when I look at chapter two. Faith without works is dead. That can be twisted into some seriously scary stuff.

You know, James 2 goes right along with Hebrews 4 in some ways. The author of Hebrews says,

If Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains, then, a Sabbath rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.

As a kid, I took that line about making every effort to enter God’s rest a little too literally. I still do.

Let me be honest. I’m not good at resting. In my heart, despite myself, I still believe that the Promised Land comes when I die, that Salvation is a golden mystical crown in a city full of Revelation weirdness. In fact, I look for passages about adjusting my attitude, and find a work ethic prescription right there in Hebrews:

“For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (4:12).

So I think to myself, the Bible itself helps me judge the thoughts and attitudes of my heart. Great! All I have to do is get up earlier. Study more. Work harder. And I’ll find that attitude of rest.

But I’m pretty sure that’s not what this verse means. Sure, reading the Bible is a good thing. It helps me get my head on straight–and surely attitude has a lot to do with keeping a right perspective. But Hebrews doesn’t say the Scripture helps us judge us judge. It says the “word of God” helps us. The logos from John 1 who was in the beginning. Certainly, the “word of God” means Scripture, but it also means much more than that.

And in this context, the word of God seems to mean something even more specific than Jesus himself or Scripture itself. It also means a specific word from God about rest.

God calls us into his rest.

This reminds me of a little video that’s been a big hit in our house lately.

When my mother-in-law watched this with us, she was horrified. The song does trample on the protestant work ethic a bit. But I think there’s more to it than that.

Somehow, like in the little song, my work flows out of my rest. So that I say, “Oh yes, I also practice trumpet everyday.” Or “Oh yes, I also edit words everyday.”

When editing words or practicing trumpet becomes work, thatss because I’ve forgotten to let God’s rest permeate everything I do. Surely, there’s no better prescription for adjusting my attitude than that? We’re talking about the ultimate attitude adjustment here. Work itself includes rest. This doesn’t mean we don’t also take time off.

Our culture idolizes work in some ways.

I need to unplug from the computer on Sunday. I need to have no agenda on Sunday. I need to go see Kung Fu Panda with my son on Sunday with no agenda except to laugh and laugh and stop for Chinese food on the way home.

Simply put, it is easier to have a positive attitude in our work and our daily lives–an attitude of rest–when we obey God’s specific call to rest.

Tagged as: never go to work, rest, sabbath, they might be giants