Smarter Than the Average Bear!

♫ “Yogi Bear is smarter than the average bear,

Yogi Bear is always in the ranger's hair.

At a picnic table you will find him there

Stuffing down more goodies than the average bear.

 

He will sleep till noon but before it's dark,

He'll have every picnic basket that's in Jellystone Park.

 

Yogi has it better than a millionaire

That's because he's smarter than the average bear.” ♪*

 

So… you might be wondering what an old song about a cartoon series from my past has to do with any scriptural subject that I may be writing about!  Well… if you don’t know by now… NOW YOU DO!  It’s just the way my unusual train of thought seems to work!  I guess you could blame it on some thirty plus years of coming up with exciting, different, challenging and creative ways to share the gospel with youth and children… with a few adults thrown in along the way!

Piper and I shared a common passion to always make the gospel of Christ to be an exciting and fun place for our young charges to be.  Our desire was that they would always associate Jesus as a friend and recall their personal experiences with Him as very pleasant and memorable encounters.

I mean let’s face it… Piper and I loved a fun time, we loved to laugh and make others laugh along with us… and when you put us in a room, leading a group of teens or elementary school children… the odds were that we would have fun and LOTS of it… all encompassed around the very positive message of Christ’s love, grace, peace and acceptance for each of us… just the way we are!

So yeah… I’m reading from 1 Corinthians 2:16 in The Passion Translation during my Bible Study time this morning where Paul is teaching the church saying,

“For Who has ever intimately known the mind of the Lord Yahweh well enough to become his counselor? Christ has, and we possess Christ’s perceptions.” 

And I immediately sensed the thought that “Hummmm… we, as Christians, have the mind or the perceptions of Christ… Who intimately knows the mind of God!”

Then I leaned back in my chair, scratched my head and further considered the idea that if that is true… and it is, since Jesus Himself told us that God’s Word is the truth in John 17:17… then... we Christians have the ability to be a step ahead of everyone else in the world who has not YET accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord (See: Romans 10:9-10)!  The King James Version tells us that “we have the mind of Christ.”

According to Thayer’s, the definition of the word “mind” infers “the capacity for spiritual truth, the higher powers of the soul, the faculty of perceiving divine things, of recognizing goodness (in others) and of hating evil.”  Mounce Concise English-Greek Dictionary defines it as “a settled state of mind, or a frame of mind”

Plainly said, having the mind or perceptions of Christ, gives us a greater degree of understanding to things going on around us... than those who don’t.  In some respects, one could (humbly) say… we just might have an edge that could enable us to be a little smarter than the average person whose mind… as non-believers… has not yet been “transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and well pleasing and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:2 EMTV)

And that is precisely where it happened!  As soon as I completed this line of thought, the picture of Yogi and Boo-Boo Bear dancing through the campgrounds at Jellystone Park, grabbing a food basket from right under the watchful care of Ranger Smith and running away with Yogi calling out “Hey Boo-Boo!” zipped right into my mind!  Then for the next ten minutes, all I could hear was the show’s theme song of “Yogi Bear is smarter than the average bear…”

But you know… as silly as that may seem… I bet-cha anything that you’re now singing that song and will remember it when it comes to hearing the perceptions of Christ… as you study God’s Word, increase your understanding of it and begin to trust Him more and more for EVERYTHING, EVERY SITUATION, EVERY NEED, EVERY BIT OF WISDOM that you may desire and EVERY BLESSING that you may need!

And when you get that extra perception of the situation that you find yourself in the middle of… and are able to see victory in the midst of seeming failure… You too will tell those around you that,

“Hey Boo-Boo… Yogi and I ARE smarter than the average bear!”

Isn’t God Good!  Have a great rest of the week, and in doing so… Keep EXPECTING God’s best in your life!                                                                                       

 

*source: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/tvthemes/yogibearlyrics.html