Jesus Manages the Four Spaces of Anxietyਨਮੂਨਾ

The woman at the well is in excellent company. I’m not so much thinking of her multiple marriages, which probably have more to do with exploitation or loss than with her ability to be a good wife. Rather, I am thinking of Jesus’ pesky habit of reading minds and knowing hearts. The woman at the well is just another person recorded in the Bible where Jesus knew what was on her mind. It is unnerving enough to know that God knows everything that I am thinking and feeling, but God-In-The-Flesh, God-With-Vocal-Chords actually saying it to your face is a whole other level of discomfort.

How many times do the Gospel authors make a note, about Jesus ‘and knowing what was on their hearts’ or ‘knowing what he was thinking?’ Jesus freely rummages around in our hearts and minds. That is a distinctive of God that we cannot do.

My problem is that I think I know what someone is thinking. I am prone to cross into someone else’s brain and think about what they are thinking about. Sometimes I am worried about what they think and I replay a conversation, or walk away from an encounter, but my brain is still in their brain, making meaning out of what they said, building assumption about their motive. Sometimes I am frustrated at another person. I am less worried and more annoyed. Why do they do it that way? Why won’t they change? Maybe you have been in a relationship with an addict and you find yourself worrying them to change.

What someone else thinks, and what someone else thinks of you is none of your business.

When we enter someone else’s brain we have crossed into God’s territory. We can be free if we learn to notice when we are in another’s brain, pause, pray for them and get out of there. Maybe even lock the door on your way out! Today, set a timer for 3 minutes and write a list of every person whose brain you have been in this week. That is your prayer list. Release them and be free yourself.