Immediate Mental Defeat
Defeat
begins in the mind. It is usually
immediate and definitive. Most ideas die
within milliseconds of their birth. Many
people fail because they defeat themselves mentally. First, they entertain creative thoughts about
accomplishing their goals and dreams.
Then, instantly, they nurture notions about obstacles and possibilities
of failure. Unfortunately, they dwell on
the negative rather than accentuating the positive. In so doing, they immediately defeat
themselves before even trying.
In
the Tower of Babel story, the people were of one language and thus of one
mind. The biblical word, language,
translates into border and shore.
Practically speaking, because they did face a language barrier, they
enjoy clear and consistent communication, which enables them to achieve unity
in thought and uniformity in action.
That clarity and unity empowers them to achieve anything that they
imagine. In Genesis 11:7, the author
says of the builders of the Tower of Babel, “If they can accomplish this when
they have just begun to take advantage of their common language and political
unity, just think of what they will do later.
Nothing will be impossible for them!”
Essentially, if they could clearly conceive an idea and overcome any
“borders” or “shores” that would limit their ingenuity and implementation, then
they could do anything that they thought.
Charles
Dickens in his novel, David Copperfield, speaks of the necessity of
unified thought and action in marriage.
“There is not a disparity in marriage like unsuitability of mind and
purpose.” If a husband and wife are of
the same mind and possess a united game plan, they can accomplish any goal or
dream.
You
will recall, in the Tower of Babel narrative, God decides to impede the people’s
progress of building of a monument to
the heavens. In accordance with Genesis
6:5, the Lord questions the purposes of the Tower of Babel. Rather than honoring and glorifying Him and
furthering His objectives, the Tower of Babel rises as a testimonial to human
willpower. So, the Lord confounds the
language and gives them different languages.
The builders are not able to understand each other. They find people who speak their “new”
language and go their own separate ways in groups. The Tower of Babel remains incomplete to this
day.
The
biblical word, confounds, means to confuse, fortify and enclose. By giving them different languages, Almighty
God puts a formidable barrier between them.
It practically prevents the progress of the building of the Tower of
Babel. More significantly, it
permanently limits their communication and creativity. Not only will the Tower of Babel remain
unfinished, but also there will be no possibility of conceiving any venture of
this sort in the future. Likewise,
negative thoughts and language confound the prospects of achieving our dreams
and goals.
In
order to annihilate immediate mental defeat, we seek anything positive in every
situation. As believers in the Lord
Jesus Christ, we find hope in everything.
We discard negative things that easily and quickly entangle us. Despite the length of the challenge and the
weight of the burden, we rejoice in the hope that our Lord gives us through His
example. The author of Hebrews (12:1-2)
exhorts us to “lay aside every weight” as we run the race with
perseverance. Negativity and immediate
mental defeat are two of the biggest weights that burden us.
Of
course, fear, our daily negative companion, is the identical twin of mental
defeat. Fear emerges and strengthens thoughts
of failure that overcome us. We must
overwhelm this internal adversary before we can win externally. Fear encourages us to flunk ourselves even
before we have taken the exam. It also
coerces us to give ourselves a grade of “F” before we start the paper. Additionally, fear yells within our minds
like a dictatorial editor while we write.
If that is not enough, doubt, a very close relative, visits and joins in
the fray of unhelpfulness. The Greek
word for doubt connotes warring twins.
Nevertheless, the annihilation of fear is essential to conquering the
immediate mental defeat that threatens our creativity and seeks to imprison our
talents.
Sometimes
well-meaning people inclusive of family members and friends fan the flames of
immediate mental defeat. Because our
ambitions shake them out of their complacency, they accentuate the negative
rather than support us by being positive.
We necessarily resist any tendency to listen to their negative thinking. A prominent pastor, in California who battled
cancer, developed the practice of interrupting negative parishioners with
stories about the cancer of relatives and acquaintances with the question,
“Does this story have a good ending? If
it doesn’t, I don’t want to hear the rest of it.” Similarly, I submit that we must firmly,
politely and immediately apprehend negative stories that potentially deepen the
potential for immediate mental defeat of our dreams and goals.
Interestingly,
the Tower of Babel story teaches, “Nothing is impossible” to anyone who truly
believes. The Lord Jesus Christ says the
same to the jaded father of an epileptic boy in Mark 9:23. If you genuinely believe that you have the
wherewithal to accomplish your goals and dreams, nothing can stop you. Hopefully, you will not defeat yourself with
negative thinking. George Lucas, the
creator of the Star Wars trilogy, says, “If you can conceive it, then
you can achieve it.” Again, triumphing
over immediate mental defeat that commonly afflicts us is central to success.
Imagination
is the foundation of practically everything.
It precedes the architectural renderings that produce blue prints, which
precede the start of construction. I
conclude with the compelling story of a Louisiana preacher who was erroneously
thought to be “slow and dumb” at the beginning of his ministry. In fact, he was strongly encouraged to forego
ministry with the insulting question, “Why would someone like you want to
preach?’’ His wife was once told that she deserve substantial financial
compensation given “what she has had to live with.” Yet, this preacher triumphed over all
adversity, internal and external.
Because he had the indomitable will to glorify Almighty God in the
preaching ministry, he totally defeated the immediate mental defeat that sought
to solidify his failure.
