When I was a boy, the school I attended had one of those old-fashioned merry-go-rounds. Being a small town, very rural in nature, we did not have a wide variety of playground choices: swings, monkey bars, and that merry-go-round. Of course, every child wanted to ride the merry-go- round simply because of the thrill of the ride. Many were my day-dreamed reveries as I hurried through my classwork so I could envision how I would be able to get to the door before any of the other children once the teacher dismissed us for morning recess—imagining my perfect timing as I leapt from the ground to the floor of the apparatus and claiming my prized place right smack-dab in the middle.
Once the ride was fully occupied, those left waiting for their turn would summarily begin the task of putting said ride in motion. The sheer exhilaration of the experience filled my heart with joy as the wind whipped against my face and the world spun wildly around me. Utter joy. The only problem came when some of the older boys would see us younger children having a bit too much fun in their estimation and decided to make the ride more interesting. I dreaded those moments when the older antagonists would push wildly and relentlessly, faster and faster, mocking the once-joyful children whose faces now spoke sheer dread. We begged to get off as the older boys kept spinning and laughing and mocking as they chided us to go ahead and jump.
Of course, their main goal was to humiliate us to such a degree that we either risked being thrown from the merry-go-round or risked throwing ourselves from the spinning no-longer-joy-ride. Being in the middle was the safest place from my past experiences on the playground ride. Having been thrown and having jumped in past days, I had suffered scraped elbows and knees and a bruised side and ego. I surmised that being in the middle would cause the least damage. Man, was I ever wrong!
Even though I had experienced physical injury and held on for dear life in utter fear in past merry-go-round rides, being in the middle did not afford me any less pain or humiliation or fear. When one is reduced to reacting to life out of fear—regardless of where they are on the ride—the result is always the same. Even though I was not scraped or bruised in the middle, I did become hopelessly nauseous and dizzy—and afraid. The result? Puking all over myself and everyone else in the vicinity, giving the older boys all the satisfaction they had hoped for. Form that day forward, I decided that to avoid the pain and suffering and humiliation and fear, I would simply get off the merry-go-round next time I saw the older boys headed my way. And guess what? The pain and suffering and humiliation and fear were suddenly non-existent!
Our thought-life is a lot like being on a merry-go-round if you think about it. For far too many years, my mind was sent into a constant spin due to the lies I believed about God and about myself. It never occurred to me that I could simply choose to get off the merry-go-round! That is our enemy’s scheme. He plants a thought—a lie—into our mind, and then gives it a big old push, allowing our own fear to keep us glued to the ride. Unlike those older boys who pushed and pushed that playground version, the Liar has but to plant and push the lie into our thought patterns—and we often do the work for him. My personal belief is that the liar is not omnipresent like our God.
He cannot be everywhere at once. He knows that we humans, in our pride and in our fear of what others think of us, will do his dirty work for him! He walks away and allows us to keep pushing our own merry-go-rounds of stinkin’ thinkin’ while he goes on to torment someone else.
So how do we get off the ride of our stinkin’ thinkin’? Quite simply: get off the dang merry- go-round! Stop the stinkin’ thinkin’! Renounce the lies. Replace the lies with Truth and fill your mind with God’s Word—Truth. Surround yourself with people who will love you and speak Truth to you. Speak Truth to your own mind, regardless of how you feel. Otherwise, stay on the merry-go-round and keep getting the same results: pain, sorrow, suffering, despair, self-pity, depression, and whatever the lies lead you to. It’s your choice. It really is.
Dennis Jernigan
Dennis Jernigan
This is an excerpt from the Dennis Jernigan book, Renewing Your Mind: Identity and the Matter of Choice. It can be purchased at https://www.amazon.com/Renewing-Your-Mind-Identity-Matter/dp/1613143737/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1GZNXS5ELN5VZ&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.AzdEHdBTMOTtUENfsWu4UA.iqW1r7w7iwlGizbjnBz1FgM45tDrmRp4AVQvUh0pUPk&dib_tag=se&keywords=renewing+your+mind+identity+and+the+matter+of+choice+dennis+jernigan&qid=1750857840&sprefix=renewing+your+mind+identity+and+the+matter+of+choice+dennis+jernigan%2Caps%2C151&sr=8-1
Photo courtesy of https://pixabay.com/photos/playground-trees-rural-235579/