“And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.”
Mindfulness is all about awareness of the present moment and awareness of God. When Paul says, “Fix your thoughts,” I immediately think of the practice of mindfulness. There is a lot of competition for our thoughts, with to-do lists and worries and stressors swirling. The reality is my brain will be overloaded. What can I do to seek God and help myself in those moments? Fix my thoughts. Focus.
What should we focus on? Things that are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and admirable. I imagine a guided imagery or relaxation exercise in which I try to picture what those words look like. I could imagine the meaning of the words themselves, in a picture or a color. Or I could think of an example of each. Take a moment now to slow down, pause your reading, and fix your thoughts.
Do you know what is the most true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and admirable? God himself. God is love. He embodies goodness. He is full of grace. When we need to re-focus and fix our thoughts, we can center on him. We can return to a mindful awareness of his presence. Paul says we have to put this into practice to find the peace of God. It won’t happen instantly and it won’t work if you only do it once. Daily. Perhaps hourly. Fix your thoughts. Allow God to sweep the cobwebs of your mind and return you once again to freedom.