I’m writing this just after listening to a vary good exhortation of preparing your mind to take the bread and wine in remembrance of the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for us.

However, one of things that stood out for me was being told not to think of worldly things, because until the brother giving the exhortation mentioned them, I wasn’t.

It’s really difficult to be told not to think of something. After I’d started thinking about them, I started thinking about distractions in general, which led on to me thinking about the closing scene of Ghostbusters and the giant marshmallow man.

So it’s likely that I’ve lost your attention already.

Fortunately the speaker got my attention back fairly quickly, but often this is not the case.

So what is the remedy?

We need to concentrate on the things we should do and less on trying to observe all the do-not's as it is a) very difficult and b) futile. While the do-not's may help us to avoid falling into temptation, it doesn’t help us to make progress. If we stand still we won’t fall into a ditch, but neither will we reach our destination.

I remember a good few years back now, when I was asked about my faith. I replied, "I don’t believe in the trinity. I don’t believe in hell or going to heaven when we die. I don’t believe in infant baptism" and a few more "don’ts" thrown in as well, to which the person I was talking to said “You don’t believe in very much, do you?” I look at it now as an opportunity lost.

Clearing a garden of weeds is easier if you don’t have to carefully avoid the plants you want to keep. But if you never plant anything the garden becomes pointless. The pleasure of a garden is seeing things grow (and eating the fruit and vegetables that we might grow there). So while it’s easier to just turn the ground over regularly we don’t get anything positive from bare soil.

Not only does our mind need to be like a garden, but so does our lives.

Jesus give us a parable of the tares in Matthew 13 (which for your information we do having growing in our vegetable plot, even though these days it’s a fairly rare plant in the UK. As the plot is fairly small we can cut the tares back regularly, rather than try to pull them out, but it’s very time consuming. We want to have an organic garden so don't want to use chemicals to get rid of the weeds.) The moral of the parable is that bad things happen, and bad people are there, and in the end they will be taken away. But for now we have to put up with them.

It’s a sad world that we live in, but some people are more likely to do something that they have been told not to. Those who deliberately go out of their way to do something they shouldn’t.

The other situation that I’ve come across is those who say that rules or a certain rule applies to everyone but them. One extreme example was someone who had lit a camp fire in a woodland during a very dry spell so that he could toast some food over it. When I approached him, he was very argumentative and actually said that others shouldn’t light fires, but he was OK to do that. We had to call the fire brigade as the fire had burned down into the soil and he couldn’t put it out.

The Bible tells us that what judgements we use towards others, will be the judgement God uses on us. Do we resent what others do to us, but feel justified to do the same thing back to them? Do we want others to help us, but aren’t willing to help others? Jesus says to do to others what you want them to do for you.

Jesus criticised the Pharisees for telling others what to do, but not doing it themselves. The whole of Matt 23 talks about this.

So while building a house requires digging down to get a good foundation, the actual building requires us to do constructive things, not keep taking away.

The more positive things we do, leaves less time for the things we shouldn’t.

So when it comes to thinking about Christ, following his example and making progress, we need to concentrate on what we can do. So if you have drifted off, here's the summary; Paul, when writing to the ecclesia at Philippi, says this in last chapter;

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you. (Phil 4:8,9)

So as we come to remember Christ through the bread and wine, we need to think on the things he did and what we can do to please him and our Father in Heaven.