My children love living upside down.
Like small bats, they hang in unexpected places around the house. I’m constantly finding them with their knees hooked around some wildly unstable structure, their head several feet from the ground, and upside-down grins on their blotchy red faces.
Outdoors it’s even worse. They’ll use the jungle gym, the trampoline or a random tree for their death-defying trapeze stunts.
“Look at me Mom!” they yell, arms crossed while swinging upside-down by one knee. Then of course, they sometimes fall from their rickety perch, inspiring me to practice my 100 yard dash, barefoot, across the gravel driveway. SO FUN.
Living upside down does have its merits though. Today I sprawled across the couch, stretched my neck over the arm, and tried out their viewpoint for a minute.
Do you want to know something amazing? It’s CLEAN up there.
When I’m upside down, I can’t see the dirty dishes overflowing the sink, or the clutter on the floor that I picked up only five seconds ago. The five loads of laundry that I have yet to fold are out of sight when I’m upside-down, and there are no dirty footprints or bathroom fixtures that need cleaning, (although I can see a few toothpaste smears pretty close to the ceiling….I’m not sure I even want to know how that happened!).
Maybe it’s all the blood rushing to my head that’s helping me think clearly, or maybe it’s just a revelation from God, but the words, “Paradigm Shift” suddenly overtake my mind.
Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines a Paradigm Shift as “an important change that happens when the usual way of thinking about or doing something is replaced by a new and different way”. (emphasis mine)
Someone once gave me a pair of dimes to visually remind me of this concept and so I taped them to the console of my vehicle and they rode there for several years. That “Pair-of-dimes” shift changed the way I thought and prompted me to study what God’s truth said, instead of relying on my old thought patterns.
Romans 12:2 (NKJV) says this, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
I also love how the NLT Bible translates this same verse, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”
But what does hanging upside-down off the couch have to do with changing the way I think?
I ponder this question myself as I wipe up a pee-accident with my supposedly all-natural cleaner that smells like a rubber tire and a chemical plant had a baby.
The normal me, with my feet on the floor and my mind firmly on worldly things would be pretty upset. This kid has been potty-trained for six months, and should be past the stage of leaving puddles of pee around for me to unexpectedly step in barefoot. Usually I’d be a little frustrated. But today I’m still mentally staring at the ceiling. I’m still trying to understand what Jesus meant when He said in John 17:15-16 that “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.”
I think Jesus was letting me know that at this moment, I’m called to live in the world. My place of residence may be this earth, but my mind should be fixed on my TRUE home, heaven. Jesus walked in this world, but He was constantly focused on an eternal perspective. If I am to be more like Him, then changing my physical perspective from floor to ceiling is a symbol of what my spiritual eyes should be doing. It’s a physical representation of my internal paradigm shift.
“Well,” you might say, “that couch stuff sounds pretty nice, because at least I’d be off my feet after a long day with toddlers, but as far as changing the way I think? That’s much too hard, because I wouldn’t even know where to start.”
There’s a really straight-forward method that I’ve learned for changing old thought patterns. It’s crazy how it flips my eyes to heaven in a heartbeat and spotlights the lies I’ve believed for too long.
The name of this method is, “TRUTH”.
Truth is the catalyst that changes my perspective from self-focused to focused on Jesus.
If I read on into John 17:17, Jesus prays to His heavenly Father, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.”
Truth sanctifies me. “Sanctify” means “to set apart”. So truth sets me apart from the world, and reading and hearing the Father’s Word shows me what truth is. If I don’t know truth, then I am unable to recognize the lies that the enemy throws at me.
See if any of these lies sound familiar…
“You should always be in action, always doing. There’s no time for rest or rejuvenation.”
“It’s just too much. Life is just too hard.”
“You’re not good enough.”
“You failed, and now you ARE a failure.”
Lies, all lies.
But sometimes these insidious lies become so entwined with our thought patterns that we don’t recognize them as lies.
In fact, we meditate on them so much that they BECOME our truth. We behave as if the lies are true, we speak these lies over ourselves, and we become enslaved to the lies.
But today God says to you and to me, “No more Daughter. You cannot live in the lies any longer. Meditate on My Word and find out who you truly are in Christ. Find your identity in me. Stop believing the enemy and believe ME for I am “the Way, the TRUTH, and the Life.”(John 14:6)
To clarify this point, let me just say that I grew up frequenting the good ol’ Dollar General Store. As a teenager who loved sugar, I would go to the candy racks, pull the largest, cheapest chocolate bar off the shelf, and take it up to the counter. It was pretty good. The quick fix satisfied my cravings, and if it did taste faintly of wax and plastic, then what was that to me? It was as good as I knew.
Then, when I was sixteen, I went on a mission trip to Albania with a group of other teenagers. We had a wonderful time ministering there and doing construction work at a home for disabled children. After the trip was over, we debriefed in Switzerland for several days. On one foray into the city, I wandered into a shop and bought two bars of chocolate. As I came out, I bit into one.
Sweet heaven, but there’s a reason the Swiss are known for their chocolate. It. Was. Amazing. I actually gobbled down both bars then and there. I just couldn’t stop!
When compared side by side, the “chocolate” I’d tasted before was a lie compared to the rich, smooth flavor of REAL chocolate.
This is what God’s Word does for us. As we soak in His word, truth begins to chip off the waxy, brittle layers of the lies we’ve believed. Truth guides us into new thought patterns, gives us the peace we so desperately crave and keeps us from stumbling as we feast on the rich goodness of God.(Psalm 119:165)
So, dear friend, let’s head over to the couch, point our toes towards the ceiling and live upside down for a while. Let’s ask God for a paradigm shift that will transform our lives by changing the way we think forever.
It will be worth it, I promise.
Take a moment:
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Today, soak in the Truth of God’s Word. Meditate on His promises and allow His light to shine on the lies you’ve believed for so long. When God shows you truth that counteracts that lie, write it down, and speak that verse whenever the enemy bombards you with His lies. If you need a place to begin, here are antidotes to a few common lies we moms believe.
Lie: “You should always be in action, always doing. There’s no time for rest or rejuvenation.”
Truth: Luke 10:41-42
Lie: “It’s just too much. Life is just too hard.”
Truth: Philippians 4:13
Lie: “You’re not good enough.”
Truth: Philippians 4:19-20
Lie: “You failed, and now you ARE a failure.”
Truth: 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
