Solid oaks.

Saturday started with a paperclip.

Tie one to a piece of thread. Hold the thread between two fingers, elbow on your knee, and let the paperclip hang dead still. Now don't move. Just think about it swinging in a circle. Don't try. Just picture it.

It moves.

Every man in the garage did it, and every man got the same result. Nobody was swinging it on purpose. Your hand was doing what your mind was picturing, without asking you first.

Everything gets through

That's the whole lesson, and it isn't a party trick. Whatever gets into your mind gets through to your body and your soul, whether you decide to let it or not. There's no gate. The thought comes in, and your hands, your mood, your temper, your posture at the dinner table all start moving in that direction, the same way the paperclip did.

So the question isn't whether what you're taking in is shaping you. It is. The question is what you're taking in.

Most of us are running a steady feed of things we never chose. The scroll. The news. The voice at 11 PM that says you're behind, you're failing, everybody else has it figured out. You don't think you believe any of it. But you don't think you're moving the paperclip either.

For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.

Proverbs 23:7

What God actually calls you

If everything that gets in gets through, then you'd better be putting something in on purpose. And the best thing to put in is what God says you are, because He's the only one who gets a vote.

Here's what He says.

That they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.

Isaiah 61:3

Trees of righteousness. The old Hebrew word there is a big tree, and most translations say it plainly: oaks. Solid oaks. Planted by God, on purpose, so that people would look at them and see Him.

Think about what an oak is. It is not fast. It does not sprout up in a weekend and it does not blow over in one. It grows slow, roots deep, and when the storm hits it's still standing in the morning. That is what you were made to be. Not a reed that bends toward whatever the culture is blowing this week. An oak.

And it doesn't stop there.

And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.

Romans 8:17

And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

2 Corinthians 6:18

Heir. Son. Those aren't titles you earn on a good week and lose on a bad one. They're what you are. They were true before you walked in the garage and they'll be true when you leave.

Put it in on purpose

So here's the work. If the paperclip is going to move anyway, you decide which direction.

Fill your mind with what God says about you, deliberately, every day, before the world gets its turn. Say it out loud if you have to. I am an oak. I am an heir. I am a son of the living God. It will feel strange the first week. The paperclip felt strange too. Do it anyway.

That's half of why we open the Word at 8:30 before anybody touches a bar. It isn't a warm-up for the real thing. It's the real thing. The workout is where you prove it to your body.

Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Romans 12:2

Tuesday

Here's where it lands.

Tuesday night, the kids are melting down, your wife is tired, you're tired, and the thought shows up: I'm not good at this. I'm a bad dad. That thought goes straight through, and your voice gets sharper and your shoulders drop and the whole house feels it. The paperclip moves.

Catch it. Replace it. I'm an oak. I'm an heir. I'm a son. I am planted here, in this house, with these kids, on purpose, by God, so that they can look at me and see Him. Then go back in the room and act like it.

That's not positive thinking. That's just agreeing with what's already true.

Keep it rolling

Show up Saturday. Open the Word. Pick up something heavy. Go home and be a dad.

And if there's a man in your life who's been feeding on the wrong things, you know how this works. You have to know a dad. Be the one who invites him. Or reach out and we'll start there.

Show up. Don't quit. Be a good person. You're an oak. Stand like one.