Whose Mind Is It? … Hello Hump Day readers. Sometimes when I am tired of listening to the rat-race in our society, I turn on Whose Line Is It? started by Drew Cary and still going strong. I get laughs and I’m also in awe of how these comedians can come up with stuff-on-the-fly! I wondered if they had this set up before the show, but I found out that no, what they do is on the spot and they don’t have much time to change their mind! The book The Mind Changers is one I have studied about communication theory and I recommend the book to anyone.

Emory Griffin (called Em) is a Ph.D. emeritus of communication at Wheaton College, Illinois, teaching since 1970. He taught courses of: interpersonal communication, public speaking, persuasion, intercultural communication, ethics, conflict, intimacy, communication theory.  The Mind Changers is used for teaching world-wide. Here is one chapter of his experiment.

A group of 12 people are brought into a room. On the wall of the room, four lines of differing lengths were displayed and the subjects were asked to vote publicly which two lines were the same length. The key, however, was that: 11 of the participants had been told to give the same obviously incorrect answer to try to throw off the one who was in the dark on the experiment. So when they voted publicly, person after person chose the same wrong answer, having been told to do so. The one individual who was in the dark couldn’t imagine how in the world all these seemingly normal people could all choose the obviously incorrect answer! But when it was their turn to vote, the decision had to be made, “Do I go with my senses, or do I go with the crowd?” And one-third of the subjects caved into group pressure and changed their vote to agree with their peers, even though they knew it was wrong!

This experiment reminds me of myself when I feel outside things are pulling me in all kinds of directions. Almost like saying “too many options” but we still have to choose options and dang it—that’s hard! “Our purpose is to please God, not people” the Apostle Paul said in his Epistle from 1 Thessalonians 2:1-5 [Voice]:

“Brothers and sisters, you yourselves know that our coming to you was not a waste of time. You remember how we had just suffered through brutal and insulting attacks in Philippi; but because of God, we boldly stepped into the open to tell you His good news, even though it would likely mean more conflict for us. For we haven’t approached you—or anyone else for that matter—with some error or impure motives or deceitful agenda; but as we have been approved by God and entrusted with the good news, that’s how we are telling the world. We aren’t trying to please everybody, but God, the only One who can truly examine our motives. As you know, we didn’t sandwich the truth between cunning compliments; we told it straight—and before the eye of God, we never conspired to make a single cent off of you!”

A lot of things in our world today fight for our attention–pulling us in different directions and sadly, many of us buy into it. So, what do we do amidst this reality? The key is to live a life not driven by stress or fear, but to live with a God-first focus. We can’t afford to just fit God in. He needs to be at the center of our lives–always.

Temptation is always begging us, that’s why it’s easy to fall into the way the world thinks, even when we know it’s not right. But, it is in those times that we must remember we’re also part of a test—a test of faithfulness to God. Our best strategy is to stay strong in the face of peer pressure so we will pass the test of faith for only then can we find peace and meaning and the experience of the life God has created us to be. AMEN.