Broken thing

From Get Out of Your Head by Jennie Allen

Poem that "Rachel" wrote:

The mind is a broken thing.

It runs, races, and paces, taking me places that

consume me, distract me, and tempt me to believe

I'm not good enough, no...never will be.

You've got to strive to survive,

to thrive, to stay alive in this world

of ever-changing, evolving ideals,

images, idols, and icons.

You have to work for your worth,

clean yourself up,

do more, be better,

don't show weakness, be tough,

try to be enough,

collect piles of treasures, trinkets, and stuff.

Maybe then...you'll be loved.

Yes, the mind is a broken thing.

if unguarded and let loose,

it can attack you and snatch you and trap you,

leaving you stuck, self-obsessed, asleep, and enslaved.

But "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old has passed away, behold, the new has come."

Your mind doesn't have to be out of control.

Those thoughts and loops and cycles can stop.

You're not left unarmed; you have a tool to interrupt

the racing, pacing, list-making,

restless, unending, repeating, defeating,

distracting, disorienting, consuming, controlling thoughts.

Yes! You can interrupt and fight against the lies,

the arrows from the enemy that fly in the darkness of the night.

They are coming for you, but they don't want to be realized.

You have the Word, you have light, you have life.

Wake up from your twisted perspective that keeps you despairingly

focused on yourself.

Instead, fix your eyes to see and know and understand what really 

matters.

You're not a victim of your own mind,

because if you're in Christ, you have victory.

A God who loves you, knows you, sees you, has shown you

a love so radical, intimate, personal, and wild

that He would painfully choose to lose a child

to reconcile all mankind. "While we were still sinners, Christ died."

It's hard to fully grasp the vastness of His steadfastness,

His mercy, and His grace that move past any mistakes that

you or I have made

to pull us from the pit that we were once in.

And if you truly knew Him, you would love Him.

You would believe Him.

And you would kill any seed of a thought that would twist

and thwart and take your mind from

whatever is true,

honorable,

just,

pure,

lovely,

commendable.

Yes, the mind is a broken thing.

But God's Spirit dwells deeper, His Word rings truer,

For in Christ Jesus we are free.