Wednesday 12 April 2017

PLEASE READ THIS FRIENDS. IT IS AN ARTICLE FORWARDED TO ME BY A CHRISTIAN BROTHER AFTER ENCOUNTERING THE MATTER IN A PROBLEMATICAL WORK SITUATION!

                            MINDFULNESS: NOT FOR CHRISTIANS!

....’bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ’. 2 Corinthians 10:5

Introduction
There is a practice that is becoming more widespread and increasingly embraced by governments, public sector organisations and the global corporate world as well as by individuals that is professed to be secular, non-spiritual and validated by science. You may have heard of it but unless you are involved you probably have little in depth knowledge about it other than what has been presented by its enthusiastic proponents. It is being promoted as a route to happiness, better personal well- being and better business performance as well as a tool for reducing stress. It is labelled and known as ‘Mindfulness’.

The practice is increasingly directed towards the leaders at all levels of society with some success in order to supposedly create lives with a deeper sense of peace and purpose and to positively influence the world around them. One can suppose that if this continues to take hold it may become more and more mainstream and embedded in company and organisation culture so that those who feel inclined or prefer not to follow this path could increasingly find themselves marginalised.

Time magazine majoring on the practice on its front page in the January 2014 edition headlined it ‘The Mindful Revolution’. One can see how the promised rewards of having happier citizens enjoying better wellbeing and staff who are happier, less stressed and more productive is appealing to companies and organisations apart from the appeal to the individual seeking inner peace and relief from stress.However, the bible believing Christian has a responsibility to check this practice against scripture in deciding whether it is the right path for them. The apostle Paul warns in 1 Timothy 4:1 of the doctrine of demons and deceiving spirits in the end times. He also urges us in 1 Thessalonians 5:21 to ‘test all things’. This paper seeks to do that.

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