What Is Your Mantra?

 

By definition, a mantra is a word, phrase, or sentence that guides a person through life. It can also be a kind of mystical call to place or keep a person in a particular state of mind. Sometimes, people create or adopt a conscious mantra to organize their thoughts and actions, and sometimes, a mantra can be more subtle—like an attitude. For a moment, think about your own mantra—whether it is an overt one or a covert one (that you may not even articulate). What is that mantra? Does it align with biblical principles?

In ILLUMINATED, the main character, Cotton Rivers, adopted a mantra early in her life: “Ignorance is its own reward.” At first, this mantra may appear to be a kind of oxymoron. But, in the beginning of her Christian journey, this mantra serves her well. If she doesn’t know about work requirements, she doesn’t have to perform them. If she doesn’t acknowledge a reality in her life, she doesn’t have to deal with it. If she doesn’t examine the biblical principles she learned in her youth, she believes she is free to operate outside of those principles and morality.

Unfortunately, the impunity she enjoyed throughout her life on Earth (in The Choosing Place) does not serve her well in her new situation in The Sorting Place (in Heaven). Her ignorance prevents her from “sorting” out her life and her choices in that life. Her ignorance impedes her from seeing the repercussions of her “choices” in The Choosing Place. Thus, her Christian journey is thwarted.

The entire Bible is salted with verses cautioning against ignorance.

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge…” Hosea 4:6

“Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.” Ephesians 4:18

“And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.” Acts 17:30

Wisdom is exalted throughout the scriptures.

Now, I’d like to challenge you to think beyond the concepts of ignorance and wisdom to develop a mantra that is scripture or is based upon scripture that could guide you through your own life. Would it be a mantra of loving your fellow man? Would it be a verse based upon prayer and communication with our Lord? Would you devise a mantra that includes one of the Gifts of the Spirit?

In the remaining miles of my own Christian Journey, my Christian mantra (based upon Isaiah 6:8) is resounding louder and stronger in my head and heart: Here I am, oh, Lord. Send me.