open mind

Did you ever notice how humanity tends to get stuck, how we put ourselves into these little boxes of what we know, are comfortable with, and believe? I've seen this so often in my own life. I've come from a religious/christian background, as most of you know, and over the last couple of years I have gradually felt my way out of that particular box. Looking back over the last few years of my life, seeing where I've been, has been eye-opening. You always see things more clearly looking back, eh? I was right into the new charasmatic, prophetic, spirit-filled movement. I went to conferences, church at least once a week. I believed in speaking in tongues and prophesying. And I was incredibly closed-minded and judgemental! I'm not about to go and say that the movement is wrong, or that the people in it are wrong, or anything even close to that. But I am going to say that I was stuck in a box. I thought I was free from religion and moving in the Spirit. I thought I was better than those stuffy churchy folk who just sat in church and did nothing. Afterall, I was free! I was listening to the Spirit and not being held by those religious constraints anymore! But I was still in a box. I still had my own constraints - new ones. I was still judging people and thinking I was better - it was just different people.

I was so judgemental of anything that was outside of my box. Anything that seemed new age. Anything that was "secular". Anything that was "worldly". I was incredibly narrow-minded and saw things as very black and white - if it's part of this movement where I am, then it's white, if it's "out there" then it's black. Things like Harry Potter, yoga, accupunture, non-christian music, alcohol, any kind of sex or anything too sexual outside of marriage - anything that seemingly "threatened" the values of the bible, or was too new age or eastern mystical. It was outside of my acceptable box and I judged it harshly!

But the interesting thing about a journey is that the scenery changes, the road changes, and often the destination and route changes. Few things are constant. I have since broken out of that box and opened my mind a little bit more. I can now see some of those areas where I was judgemental and closed-minded, where I formed an opinion too quickly without the facts, based only on what I believed, or those around me believed. There's nothing wrong with believing in things. We need to have morals, values, opinions. But I personally don't want to get stuck in them to the point where I don't see anything else or won't try anything new.

The journey has brought me a long way off that track I was on in the last couple of years. I have tried many new things - some of which are valuable and I have kept, others of which I discarded. I have opened my mind to other ideas, and have grown because of it. My one hope in this is that I won't simply go from one box to another, but that I will truly learn to be open-minded, without being so open that my mind falls out!