Things Above
“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”
- Colossians 3:1-2 (NIV)
I am a part of a men’s group at my church that meets at 6:30 AM every Wednesday morning. I come in thirty minutes prior to make coffee for everyone and help set up tables and chairs. Believe it or not, I am not a morning person in any sense that phrase entails. One of the most difficult parts of any average day of my life is getting out of bed; I am usually tired, sore, and during these winter months freezing once I take my blankets off. Waking up at 5:30 AM to set up for men’s group, however, is a sacrifice I have found is worth making.
At 23 years old, I am always the youngest in the room. While some may find this intimidating, I cherish the fact that on a weekly basis I get to learn from men who have been through the struggles and challenges of life. I have the privilege of hearing multiple perspectives, receiving constant nuggets of wisdom, and learning lessons that I would have had to figure out the hard way otherwise. I am often challenged to grow and mature in ways and areas I had not thought of before. These insights have allowed me to prepare for stages of life that I have not yet reached.
Perhaps my most favorite part about men’s group, however, has been learning that these men are still figuring life out. In some strange way this has been a comforting realization for me; that there will not be some moment where I all of a sudden figure life out. This is comforting to me because it means I am not somehow missing something in my life. I often feel like life does not make sense to me and that I am just winging it. Where is the formula for happiness and success? Well it turns out there is none, and my feelings are indeed normal for a 23 year old man, let alone a 40 year old married man with children!
I experienced another instance of this on a recent Wednesday morning as we were discussing Colossians 3:1-17. The study we have been going through had used this passage to guide our quiet time with God during the week, so when we met up we had the opportunity to discuss our thoughts and questions on it. One of the guys in the room brought up the first two verses in the passage, and made a comment that really got me thinking. To paraphrase, it went something like this, “I find myself struggling with this. When I read it, these ‘things above’ just seem so abstract in my mind.” This stuck with me for the rest of the morning. Not only was it once again strangely comforting to hear a man of more experience than I struggling with this passage, but I could not get this question out of my mind:
What does setting our hearts and minds on things above practically look like?
As my men’s group colleague mentioned, setting our hearts and minds on things above can seem so abstract. Unfortunately, every time I have heard or read that verse before I settled for the abstraction and did not bother diving any deeper. Paul, however, wrote it for a reason. It is a real command that we as Christians are to follow, but how do we do so?
We can look through Christian history to find many different examples of how people have attempted to make this verse practical. Dating back all the way to the third century, the “Desert Fathers” took these verses as literal as possible. The Desert Fathers were a group of Christians that decided it was better to live in the deserts of Egypt than in the cities of the world, and they did just that. They retreated to the wilderness so that they could focus completely on setting their hearts and minds on things above. Leaving behind all material possessions, wealth, and even family; they became hermits of the desert completely isolated from “earthly things”. Monasticism began with this same pursuit in mind. Christians tired of the world and all of its trappings built up monasteries and temples in which they could put all of their attentions and efforts into seeking the “things above”. Once again, these monks found their solution to this question in isolationism; withdrawing and escaping from the world. We can see this same approach even among the regular Christians of today; people who refuse to look into or participate in anything secular; including movies, music, and books, because they are “earthly”. I have seen this extend to dangerous places, so far as to not helping their neighbors with real-life hardship because the solution is to simply pray about it, to set your mind on things above, not earthly things.
It seems to me that there is something missing about these approaches to this question. I do not think that we can escape the fact that we live in the world. In fact, God purposely placed us here and surround us with “earthly things”. I do not believe setting our minds and hearts on things above means trying to escape earth. Rather, I believe the solution to our question is to focus on our relationship with God first and through this lens see and interact with the world and its “earthly things”.
“…setting my heart and mind on things above means going to and seeking God first, interacting with the world through the lens of that all-important relationship.”
I’ve seen this play out to be true in my own life. Semi-recently I went through a “breakup”, and although it itself was clean and we are now friends, I have been an internal mess since it happened. For so long I have been approaching it in an earthly way, asking questions like, “How do I get over her?”, “What do I do now?”, “How do I move on?”, and admittedly sometimes, “How can I get her back?” or, “Who’s next?”
In time spent with God, I have wanted to escape these “earthly things”. I wanted to follow Paul’s command exactly how my brothers and sisters throughout Christian history have tried and just talk to God about “things above”, whatever those may be. But God kept bringing her up.
“Josh, you cannot ignore this. You are going about this the wrong way. Here, let Me give you My thoughts and how I think you should handle this.”
When I brought these “earthly things” to God, there was breakthrough. Now, I am looking at this “earthly” relationship with a new perspective; accepting that I love her, showing her grace, and realizing that this is not just some failed romantic relationship. Rather, it is a relationship that will be successful, last, and thrive in its own unique way.
For me, setting my heart and mind on things above means going to and seeking God first, interacting with the world through the lens of that all-important relationship.
