Garbage In - Garbage Out

Today we're going to spend a few minutes discussing a very interesting and intriguing part of the human body. A part that is almost beyond man's capability to understand. It is a part that is both deep, as in vast in capacity, yet sometimes seems to be very shallow. I'm speaking of the "brain." The mind of man.

Even though some don't like to admit it, it is not infinite. As great as it is, and as capacious as it is, it does have its limits. When you think about it, perhaps that's why we'll never really understand all that our minds are capable of because we stuck with using a limited instrument to try and understand it.

I mentioned the word "shallow" in the first paragraph as a descriptive of the brain and I don't want to imply that some brains have a greater storage area than other brains. I think that when you hear someone use the phrase, "he/she has a 'shallow mind," they are referring to the usage of their brain rather than the capacity of it.

As to the actual capacity of the human brain, some expert once opined that our brains can potentially store 100 trillion thoughts. Having said that, I don't think that we can even fathom a number that large. I guess that takes us back to what I said earlier, we're using an instrument we can't really understand to try and understand that instrument.

As usual I have a couple of illustrations available to help get the lesson across here today. The first one involves something a comedian from the 1950's era once said that relates directly to the gist of our lesson, and the second illustration is an acronym relative to the computer age. Those who have computers, or are at least familiar with their intricacies (a mild way of describing that confounded machine) will easily make the connection between the acronym and the lesson.

Our comedian was a guy who, sort of like Red Skelton, was very funny without the use of vulgarity or profanity. He went by the name of "Brother Dave Gardner" and professed himself to be a "Southern" comedian because he believed the earth was a Southern planet. Part and parcel of his act was his "picking" on the famous politicians of his era and, as a result of that, was once asked "didn't he have to be careful of what he said?" His answer to that was: "No, I just have to be careful of what I think."

You see, whether he realized it or not, he was speaking a great Bible truth in that statement. We know that many times in the Bible the word "heart" refers to the "mind" and the great truth I referred to is the one found in Luke 6:45 where it reads: "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil; for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh."

In analyzing that verse we see that the "treasure" area of the mind is what we'd call the "storage" area today. In computerese it would be the "memory" or "hard drive." God tells us that our speech and our actions are simply manifestations of what's stored in our minds. Which thought brings us to our second illustration.

The acronym of which I earlier spoke is "GIGO." Since an acronym is a word that is made up of the first letters of other words, GIGO means "Garbage In - Garbage Out." Paraphrasing "Bro. Dave" we say what we think. If our minds are full of garbage isn't it reasonable to think that what we do and say would be of the same nature?

Therefore (I love to use that word), what do you think is the better course here. Is it better to guard against what we say/do, or is it better to guard against what we allow to be stored in our "treasury?" Well, that's a "no-brainer" of a question, isn't it? If we guard against what we allow into our minds, then we don't have to be worried about what we say and do. The gospel writer, Mark, says that it's what "gets into our hearts (minds) that defiles us." (Mk. 7:18-19) so there is where the guard should be posted.

Think about it for a minute. There are literally millions of bits of information, put out by as many sources that are vying for a place in our mind. It doesn't matter which direction you turn, something is trying to get your attention and hoping to occupy a space in your brain. Advertising is the first thing that comes to my mind in this regards.

Here's the kicker to these thoughts here. We have the control over what gets stored in our minds. Whatever is in there now is there because we allowed it in.

So what is the best way of guarding our minds from being filled with evil? The answer is seen in the principle shown us in Luke 6:45. That we fill the available storage space with the "good" rather than the "evil."

What do we guard against? I think John summed it quite nicely in 1Jn. 2:16 when he told us that every evil in the world can be sorted into one of three categories; "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life." I think that every TV ad, and every other form of temptation, fits one of those categories. Simply put, we need to guard against allowing evil to have a place in our minds.

If we fill our minds (hearts) with God's Word and everything good, then it won't be said of us as it was some of old that their " ....hearts are far from me."

Ron Covey