Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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*I Was Finally Free To Pray When I Roped In My Runaway Mind* \\ by Roger Barrier
I am cursed with a runaway mind.
Some call me a worry wart.
Others brand me as overly anxious.
I'm constantly wondering "What if?" Maybe I inherited the tendency from my mother.
More than likely, though, I did it to myself.
Maybe it doesn't matter where I got the tendency.
One Saturday night I found myself sitting in tears behind the couch in our den.
Sunday morning sermons were fast approaching, and I was in no shape to preach.
Something was wrong.
My emotions were frayed.
I had four ulcers.
I had high blood pressure.
I had to cry out for help.
*Relief techniques* \\ The first call I made was to the head of our church's counseling center.
"I've been waiting for this," he said.
"I've already arranged for you to see a counselor who specializes in executive-level stress."
During our fourth session, my new counselor mentioned my tendency to worry.
He predicted that, unless I got help, my out-of-control mind could one day destroy my ministry.
Ministerial stress is bad enough, he said, without adding self-induced anxiety to it.
"You have what I call a runaway mind," he began.
"Every thought initiates a physical circuit of chemical changes in the brain.
The more we think the same thought over and over again, the deeper we entrench that circuitry.
I like to think of it as a racetrack with horses going around and around.
The more we worry, the harder it is to stop the horses."
My counselor equipped me with all sorts of mental tricks for dealing with anxiety.
One was to worry as hard and as much as I wanted for ten minutes-but only for ten minutes.
After that I had to put my worries into an imaginary file cabinet and move on.
This has often brought relief.
A second approach was to imagine the most idyllic scene.
Immediately I pictured an oak near a stream in central Texas.
Now, when my mind fills with anxiety, I mentally go to the shade of that tree.
The water is cool, and the breeze is steady.
In my mind I've erected hammocks, napped on pallets, enjoyed picnics, and read books under that tree.
When tension strikes in the ministry, a few moments under that tree quiet my heart.
Aided by such techniques, my runaway mind began to come under control, and I got through the crisis.
But I soon discovered willpower alone isn't enough.
*Slowing the pace* \\ We live in a society of frantic activity.
Pastors often seem to be the most hurried, harried people I know.
Seventy work hours per week were normal for me when I began pastoring.
My fatigue and worry increased daily.
My near-collapse showed me my pace could not last forever.
Fortunately, I had wise leaders who helped slow me down.
As a result, we developed a plan limiting every minister at our church to a fifty-hour work week (including Sundays).
The plan includes time compensation, because stress is cumulative.
If some weeks require more than fifty hours, the ministers must balance with fewer hours over the next several weeks.
In addition, our pastors must be home seven nights out of every fourteen.
Each of us must take off a full twenty-four-hour day each week.
It took several months, even years, for some of us to adjust.
But we did it.
Soon after implementing the plan, several of our ministers' wives quietly thanked me.
They were seeing more of their husbands than they ever thought possible.
As my pace slowed, my overactive mind slowed, too.
My runaway thoughts were easier to corral.
*Spirit to spirit* \\ Slowing my work life was one thing, but quieting my mind was another.
It's hard to listen for God's still small voice when I'm thinking about tomorrow's lunch appointment, or next Sunday's sermon, or the balance in my checkbook, or Deacon Jones's surgery that I forgot.
On and on go the thoughts.
I can travel from my driveway to the rings of Saturn in seconds.
I found some help when I discovered that our brains run at different speeds.
When we're in a deep sleep, for example, the brain runs at zero to three cycles per second (the delta wave).
As it speeds up to four to seven cycles per second (the theta wave), the brain moves toward increasing levels of wakefulness.
The alpha wave, at eight to thirteen cycles per second, is best for our creative and contemplative side, for communing with God and hearing him speak.
Most Americans, however, spend the bulk of their waking hours in the beta-wave level of brain activity.
This speed (fourteen to twenty-five cycles per second) is perfectly suited for baking casseroles, going to meetings, and solving problems.
However as we approach the levels above twenty-one cycles per second, we find ourselves operating in a hassled, hurried, frenzied state.
I do some of my best worrying here.
Part of the problem is the rapid-fire sensory images of our society, which overload our circuits.
Remember when television commercials lasted a full sixty seconds?
Now they last for fifteen with four or five visual images flashing at us per second!
The visual and auditory bombardment reminds me of the radio jamming during the Cold War.
No wonder we can't hear God's voice!
The journey out of extreme beta-wave living began when my wife and I were sitting at a red light in Pittsburgh.
She asked, "Have you ever heard a sermon about the human spirit?"
I hadn't, and I didn't know much about it.
So we began to study the Scriptures.
I was intrigued by Paul's statement in 1 Corinthians 14:15: "I will pray with my spirit... [and] with my mind; I will sing with my spirit... [and] with my mind."
And in 1 Corinthians 2:10·?13, Paul writes how the Holy Spirit expresses spiritual words to our human spirit -- the Holy Spirit to our spirit.
The study changed my life.
I discovered that the human spirit is our organ for God-consciousness, the seat of our communion with God, the deepest part of our innermost being.
In this I discovered not only the power to survive but also the energy to thrive in the ministry!
It gave me access to spiritual power like never before.
Paul encourages us in 2 Corinthians 10:5 to take every thought captive for the glory of Christ.
That is essential advice for controlling a runaway mind.
But to shut out the distracting noises, I had to acquire new skills to focus my listening habits.
I began by sitting quietly in meditation for minutes at a time.
Soon minutes turned to quarter hours, then half hours, and occasionally an hour.
I concentrated on praying slowly through the Scriptures.
Then I would sit quietly and listen for God's Spirit to speak.
I believe this is part of what Paul meant when he testified to "praying in his spirit."
I still pray with my mind, working through a prayer list and consciously considering the things for which I pray.
But when the list is complete, I quiet my mind and begin to pray in my spirit.
Again and again, God prompts me in my innermost being to pray for people and situations that would normally never come to mind.
The most precious times in my life are when God speaks Holy Spirit to my human spirit.
*The calm in the storm* \\ I no longer need to find a special place to quiet my mind and listen for God.
The practice has become a habit I can enjoy at any moment.
Several months after I began the practice of gaining control over my mind, I was leading a particularly difficult elder meeting.
My anxiety increased with the tension in the room.
Opposite viewpoints were being expressed, and with force.
My mind was awash with worry about the outcome.
I felt nervous and uncomfortable.
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