An Open Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Waste

I heard it again today, "Beware of having an open mind...your brains might fall out." I've seen it expressed different ways: "I tried to have an open mind but my brains kept falling out", or "people with open minds lose their brains", or "some people are so open-minded they will fall for anything."

Are they advocating close-mindedness? Slamming open-minded people and implying they are stupid? I've always equated close-mindedness with ignorance, not the other way around.

Personally, I reject both. I choose to opt for a filtered-mind. Not so closed-minded so as to be unable to consider new ideas; nor so open-minded that one becomes gullible enough to fall for anything.

All ideas are not created equal. Some think an idea is good simply because it is new, while some think an idea to be good simply because it is old. Some are convinced that every new idea is bad, while others are convinced that every old idea is bad, outdated and irrelevent.

So we throw out some "old ideas" and traditons that need to be treasured, reject some wonderful "new-fangled" advancements, and hold on to a bunch of garbage--ideas both old and new that are not helpful for anybody.

The filtered-mind considers every idea, and checks it for truthfulness and value. What is your filter? By what standard do you evaluate every notion that vies for your allegiance?

The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment: "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?". But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthian 2:14-16)

To be led by the Spirit of God, to have spiritual discernment, to have the mind of Christ--to think and act like Jesus. A filtered mind.

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)

* Just a Thought: some people have closed their minds to even the possibility that God exists, and yet think they are open-minded. Do you know everything there is to know? Let's be generous and say you know 25% of all the world's knowledge (languages, histories of every nation, etc); is it possible that God exists in the 75% you don't yet know? Just a thought.