Here is a little riddle that might clear up some of our cobwebs. Imagine that you are getting into an unoccupied automatic elevator and pushing the button for the 12th floor only to find that the elevator stops at the 10th floor. Upon pushing the 12th floor again, the elevator promptly goes down five floors, stops and then goes up three floors and then back down again six floors. The question we need answered is: who is the elevator operator?

If we are not careful, we can get so caught up in adding and subtracting floors that we forget that we are the only one in the elevator so we must be the elevator operator.

We can do this in life. We can get so caught up in the details and the problems around us that we forget who we are. We have been purchased by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and we belong to God. We must never allow the problems, the allurements, the noise of the world around us to so distract us that we forget whose we are and whom we serve.

The world loves to lose themselves in the pursuit of worldly pleasures and many have lost their true identity because they are caught up in the hub-bub of temporal things that have no lasting value.

As we enter the early months of 1985 we need to keep in mind that all these things around us are only temporal and will someday vanish away while the things that truly concern us are, at the present time, completely out of sight and for so many, out of mind. While the world is losing itself in the theaters and in front of the TV screen, let us make sure that we are finding ourselves by filling our minds with the daily Bible readings, by prayer and meditation upon the eternal things that will soon be made manifest at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We really are what we think about all day long and we need to be doing just the opposite of those around us. How many millions of people lose themselves every day in the fictional problems of the soap operas? While they are busy getting lost, we need to heed the wise advice of Paul who told us to think about those things that are true. These things the world is lost in are not true, and even if they were true, they certainly are not honest, or just, or pure, or of good report.

If we do not make a conscious effort to guide our thinking we will find that the world will press us down into its mold, and this is the very thing Paul told us not to do. Paul tells us to ”let God re-mold your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all His demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.”

Paul goes on to say, ”As your spiritual teacher I give this piece of advice to each one of you. Don’t cherish exaggerated ideas of yourself or your importance, but try to have a sane estimate of your capabilities by the light of the faith that God has given to you all.”

The world does have exaggerated ideas of their importance. Just recently we watched in amusement as our two year old grandson ran around the room with a bath towel pinned around his neck like a cape and calling out, ”I’m Superman.” This is cute at age two but as Paul tells us, when we become a man we must put away childish things.

The world around us is still identifying with their Superman and other entertainment personalities while we should be quietly meditating upon spiritual things and as Paul said, ”give thy self wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.”