Your Mind Matters Response Paper

In the first chapter of Your Mind Matters, John Stott talks about how we as Christians are not using our minds properly. He says, “They have the zeal for God but it is not enlightened.” What this means to me is that we have the desire to get to know God but we lack the knowledge of what they actually believe. He then goes on to talk about how there is a difference between zeal without knowledge and knowledge without zeal. On one side you have the desire but are not enlightened and the other is that you are enlightened but do not have the desire to get to know God even more. What we need is to find the perfect balance between the two. Stott then goes on to give example of how this is related in our society today. He says, “Young people tend to be activist, dedicated supporters of a cause, though without always inquiring to closely either to weather their cause is a good end to pursue or weather their action is the best means by which to pursue it.” What this means is that younger people act without thinking of the best solution to do things. We have the zeal or desire without the knowledge or understanding. The chapter continues to say how the lack of knowledge is now affecting our church. For Catholics their ritual for ceremony has degenerated into a mere performance. We have still have the drive to go to church and the desire to get to know God but lack the understanding of what is truly happening. There are many activists in Christian community that do not completely know what they are actively supporting, meaning that when questioned about their faith those people do not know how to answer those questions. In summary Stott goes on to say what the remainder of the book entails. Chapter two discusses on why it is important to develop a Christian mind. Our minds “concern the power of men’s thoughts to shape their actions.” Everything we do is influenced on what we think and what we believe. Our minds affect what we do from our everyday actions to world