But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.

James 1:6 NKJV

So I started a new book, a C.S. Lewis book. His essay book titled, Miracles. I just read the prologue and already, it packs a punch. Not just with all the fancy wording but in the message too.

C.S. Lewis asks the reader to think about what they bring when they read. What beliefs already hinder their expectation of the answer? How will they see something as possible when they believe it’s impossible? How did the reader see the evidence? What was in the reader’s mind?

Then God brought to my mind the slogan of Capital One: What’s in your wallet?

A bride’s budget for her wedding dress is $300 because that is all the cash in her wallet. If she tries on a $3,000 dress, well, she still only has $300 in her wallet. Now many of us would say, what about credit cards or discounts or begging others to help out.

She came to the store with only $300. No matter what, if she gets the $3,000 dress, she will have to pay immensely for it. If she doesn’t, any dress she does try on may not feel as extravagant or be as wanted as the $3,000 one. And possibly, she could find one she really loves within her budget. It’s going to be a lot harder now that she’s seen and felt what a $3,000 dress is like.

Our minds pick up or buy, information. They just do. The information already in our head is like the cash. It’s there, it’s physical, and it’s what’s currently in our wallet. Then, there’s the $3,000 dress. It’s ideal, pretty, and also real, but it’s not in our hands and is way more than what’s in our wallet. So sometimes, we look for other information or things (the credit card, discounts, others) to back up or give us that ideal (the perfect body, looks, job, house, life, kids, spouse, etc.).

But even with the ideal in our hands, we now have to deal with everything that comes with it. The care of it, repaying however we got it, the loss of the previous information (cash) we had, and the constant worry of not making the ideal anything less than perfect. It’s quite taxing (literally).

Or what if we didn’t get that ideal (the $3,000 dress, the perfect whatever)? Well now, everything we see is going to be compared to that ideal. It’ll be hard to be satisfied with anything that our $300 (which seems measly now) can get.

This is what happens daily, in our mind. We are taking in information and buying it while losing information or something elsewhere. Do we ever stop to think about what we’re buying and why? Do we look to God, the best accountant of all (just ask the birds and the flowers) and ask Him what our brain budget is? Do we ask God how to maintain and keep the bank of our mind? Do we listen to our Accountant?

So as you go throughout your week, be careful of what information you’re buying. Be aware of what is in the wallet of your mind. Talk to your Accountant. He wants to talk with you.