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Laws of Nature


Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. (Romans 8:5-8)
        Thirty years ago I watched the beginning of John Carpenter's "The Thing." (I do not recommend it.) After showing the windswept vista of an Antarctic science outpost, the camera zoomed in on an Alaskan Malamute running across the snow. It ran up to some scientists, who, having no idea from whence the dog came, put it in with the rest of the sled dogs and all the dogs just sort of ignored it and as it settled in. My thought at the time was, "sled dogs don't act that way." Of course, I knew it was a monster movie, and it was not long after that I had to leave the theater. It seems to me it took months for my mind to let go of the image of what happened to that dog, and I don't let myself think about it much because that image is not one I care to reconstruct. I suspect I could, even now.
       In the movie, the dogs didn't act in accordance with the nature of dogs. Watching the movie (and afterwards) I did act according to mine. . I think it took me one more horror movie after that to learn my lesson. Now I tend to ask people about how graphic a movie gets before I go to see it. I may not be quite as squeamish as I was, but I know better the price I'll pay if I chance it and I'm wrong.  We expect things to behave according to their natures. When they don't, we notice.
         This is what Paul is writing about here. Those who have a sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires. Those who live according to the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. It's natural. If you have your DVR set to record a program, and it records something else (or nothing), you are likely to be understandably upset. If you have your stereo set to a radio station and a different station comes in instead, you don't generally think it a good thing unless the other radio station is more like the one you wanted than the one you wanted. If we are "set" to a nature that is hostile toward God, we cannot please him and don't want to.  In that state, I suspect we ultimately cannot please ourselves, either. We can only delude ourselves and hope to enjoy our delusion.  
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Birthday of
Abraham Lincoln
Charles Darwin
Cotton Mather

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