Jesus is the head — the command center, the authority, the brain of the operation.

I am the body — the Church, the ekklesia, the people and parts called out to display His gospel and do His will.

I’ve often felt the disconnection between spiritual emotion and spiritual practice.

I feel close to God on Monday, determined to never betray Him again. On Tuesday, my heart grows cold, wrapping itself in one of the comforts where I find tattered peace that is not of Christ.

The problem is not that I don’t feel strongly enough about God on either Monday or Tuesday.

The problem is that I am trying to live as the body without the brain — as actions and heart without a head.

I need God to make me think good, not just feel good.

I need the head of the Church.

I need the mind of Christ.

And I find it in His word, which has power I do not yet fully know. In scripture, I discover how Jesus thinks, how He prioritizes, what He believes is true and important. It is alive and active, able to expose my thoughts and conform them to His.

This is how I bridge the gap between spiritual emotion and spiritual living. This is how I bring the sacred life into simple things.

I surrender to be the body; I make Him the head. I purpose to act in His thoughts, not my feelings.

I fold laundry.

Clothe me and my family in salvation and righteousness, Lord.

I shop for school supplies.

Write your faithfulness on the tablets of these children’s hearts, God.

I pay bills and drive carpool and give generously and do mindless tasks that no one notices or praises.

My Father who sees in secret will reward me.

I fail, and my heart starts to beat me up from the inside out.

There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

I surrender to be the body; I make Him the head. And slowly, Christ’s mind becomes my own. It controls my spiritual movements, temperature and rhythms. It is the place where I now see, hear and taste. It interprets all I touch.

Then, before I even realize it, my body is stronger, my movements are more sure, my heart for God is expanding and breaking with love and emotion and feelings deeper than those that drove me and failed me before.

For they grow, not as the fleeting grass and flower of experience, which fade away, but out of the Word of our God that stands forever.

Read the next post in The Colossians Project.