When working as a Shark researcher in the Bimini Biological Field Station, Bahamas each of the researchers were assigned a skiff (small boat) that they had to maintain. One day when cleaning the skiff assigned to me, I had one foot of mine on the dock and the other in the skiff. The tether that was holding the skiff to the dock had been released and the skiff start to move away from the dock. Very soon, I found myself doing a karate kid side split, until I could no longer stretch and fell into the water getting completely soaked. I should have made up my mind to have my feet securely anchored on solid ground (dock) or both foot in the skiff to avoid the fall.
Bad outcomes are often observed to occur when the decision maker is double minded. Missed penalty kicks in Soccer or strikeouts in Baseball are testaments to players not being focused . Many times these players are double minded when they miss their shot.
Our frame of mind in our Christian walk has an effect as well. We are asked to renew our mind (Romans 12:2) so that we are no longer conformed to the patterns of this world that is unstable. We are to be with the God given sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7) and what is more is that we are to be of a single mind, the same mind that was in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5). We cannot be double minded. In other words, we cannot be schizophrenic Christians, serving two masters. We can pledge our allegiance to God or to the world, not both. To be part of God and be part of the world simultaneously is like having one feet on the dock (solid ground) and the other in the skiff (that is moving away from solid ground); the end result of which will be a sure fall.
Point(s) to ponder:
1. Have you/I renewed our minds to conform to that of Christ Jesus and not to the world?
2. Are you/I double minded in our allegiance? If so, let us choose this day, whom we shall serve!
Image: Christ in the Storm, by Rembrandt
James 1:8 (KJV)
8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
