Hmm... Give me a moment to think!

What does it take to make you feel that enough is enough? What level of provocation can you endure? How much emotional turmoil can you accept before it all gets on top of you?

We are all familiar with the analogy of the spinning plates – you have to get the first one moving before moving to the next… to get things going you need direction and drive and hope that inertia will sustain the plate until you can return to give in a bit more kinetic energy. Meanwhile, you start spinning the next plate with an eye on the first and so it goes on. You need a good sense of timing and a perception of the strategy you can use to keep all of the plates moving.

You also need to have a strategy… studying the distance between each plate and the rate of inertia, so that you can combat the distance you have to move to reduce the time taken to maintain all of the plates. We are all encouraged in life to work hard for longer, often over reaching what is achievable to un favour with those who judge our performance.

Sometimes things come to a natural end. Will it be a graceful wind down or a huge crash? When you study the plates that the performers use, they are machined with a dimple to help them stay on the stick and they are perfectly balanced, giving the performer enough time to manage the spectacle. If only life could be so perfect. Many of my spinning plates are broken or overburdened with stuff that the inertia might shake off, but inevitably the unbalanced nature of the plate’s performance causes it to prematurely crash onto the floor. That’s sometimes how life is.

The point at which we make decisions to quit something or to sustain our energies is referred to as a moment of conscious intention. This is a point in time, which can happen at every moment of the day, where you have considered all of the variables surrounding a decision, and where you might select which form of action to take. I teach a little bit of electronics and in the preparation for building the electronic circuit, we have to make sure that the ‘systems flow chart’ operates successfully and that any procedural anomalies are accommodated. In electronics, we call this feedback.

It is the ability of the system to cope with the input from the sensor and process the data whilst it performs its ‘output’ or function – what the circuit is meant to do. Feedback enables a circuit to respond to changes in the system and adapt, however as we all know, computers and electronic items can fill us with satisfaction and immense frustration, all at the same time!

In computing and robotics, the quest for artificial intelligence or sentience, is a long way off from the Arnold Schwarzenegger ‘Terminator' movie synopsis. We cannot enhance the sum of our parts through any biological means, except on the surface perhaps! Our bodies can be likened to a biological machine that performs in similar ways to that of an electronic system. We look at our body shape and our diet and want to get fit and healthy and to lose some weight because we have seen some other person or celebrity of a similar age with a better physique than ours, but inevitably in my case, the draw of the confectionary or the pizza and beer, over-rides my desire to stay healthy. My body enjoys the sweet taste of the sugar in the foods I enjoy, and it is doing a pretty good job at forming my body shape!

We can also do things such as abstaining from certain foods in the quest for a healthy lifestyle, but we can easily over-write these protocols when we feel we ‘deserve’ to be treated. I did an 12 mile cycle ride with my ‘athletic’ friend the other day, who on our return offered me a beer! We can put off things when it doesn't suit our current situation, and pursue what we would prefer to do instead.

There has been a debate about whether ‘free will’ is an actual psychological condition or whether there is in fact a hierarchy of behaviours that we rank in preference over others, which we would call biological determinism. Both free-will and determinism would work to explain our inability in keeping to the diet we made in our new year’s resolution. Just as we can choose which plates we want to keep spinning, we can choose which ones we will let drop. Scientists in the pursuit of what motivates our desire are currently looking at whether or not we have free will in making these types of choices at all.

I love the smell of fish ‘n’ chips. I love the texture of the fluffy potato in the crispy shell with the taste of the fried fats combined with the salt and vinegar; mixing this with the battered, deep fried cod with its white flesh that has the taste of the sea… it was once our number one fast food dish in the UK, but it has largely been usurped from the top spot in the national menu by an Indian curry. For me though, nothing can take away from the British seaside, my favourite cod ‘n’ chips wrapped in old newspaper, with liberal amounts of salt ‘n’ vinegar steaming in your hands.

Unfortunately I have found as I have got older, I cannot eat fish ‘n’ chips as often as I would like because the saturated fats unsettle my stomach, but still, I eat it anyway! We are exactly the same with many other things in our lives. I spend as much time as possible, distancing myself from education and school-work when on holiday, but it still manages to interrupt my relaxation in small ways. I went to pick up my daughter from Southend Airport the other evening and met a fellow teacher from the same school I work in. She was disappointed because her son’s flight was delayed by an hour. I looked at her in horror when she said, “Well, if I had known, I would have brought some planning with me!” This was 10pm on a Sunday evening. The last thing I would be thinking of doing at that time of night in my summer holiday was certainly not to complete the inevitable planning I will need to do before September.

We are all wired up completely differently it seems and yet some neuroscientists are publishing papers to suggest they have begun to understand the complexity of the sub-conscious mind. Subconsciously, I am always thinking and worrying about the amount of preparation I need to do before returning to school in autumn, it just doesn't become the forefront of my conscious thinking.  It all comes down from the work that scientists are doing on how our brain functions. Modern monitoring equipment and brain scanning equipment can be used to build a graphical map of how the neurons in the brain respond under different forms of stimulation. If you can conduct a series of controlled tests to stimulate a level of responses in a range of candidates, within controlled conditions, the data collected can be correlated to help corroborate the science behind how we make decisions.

Some tests suggest that in each of us, there is a degree of ‘sub-conscious’ activity in the brain, that pre-determines how we are going to react before we consciously realise our actions. The argument goes like this: You made the decision because in your mind you had already sub-consciously decided how you will react before giving the response you were going to make. So like in the electronic circuit, all of the variables that you have crammed into the programming of your brain are triggered when suitably stimulated by the various inputs you are exposed to. This neuron activity then presupposes the action you want to take, so in effect, tells you what to do and informs you how you ought to behave.

The conclusion being, that we do not have free will to choose our actions, it just feels that way. However, if we go back to the definition of the sub-conscious mind, this is still our own reasoning and our own intellect at work. It’s just that what we are asked to do is not always the focus of our attention at the point of hearing the request made of us. It doesn't mean we haven’t already at some point thought through how we would respond in certain decisions; we are designed to think and to be thoughtful. We can function on many parallel lines of reasoning to form a consensus that is translated into action. It is still me doing the thinking. The more alert that my mind is to the multi-layered or multi-faceted nature of human existence, the better I will be at functioning within it.

The opposite of free will is determinism – a state whereby the actions of our human nature are simply causal. We make connections in our brain chemistry and within our environment that is an inevitable conclusion to our social status and our education. Neuroscientists would argue that we are somehow locked into a pathway that is inevitable. The cause and the resultant ‘effect’s’ of this pathway, makes certain situations fit patterns of behaviour that would result in stereotypical behaviours that fit psychological and sociological patterns that are measurable… we are just biological machines after all.

As Christians, we believe that as human being’s, we are more than just a sentient being. Our belief is that we are created for a purpose with free-will to choose what we feel is right and proper for us to do. It creates a sense of purpose within our humanity, and leaves us with a choice. A choice to follow what God would want us to do and be, or a choice to follow our own more selfish ambition, however altruistic it may be.

We treat many mental health issues with a sense that the body and mind is a biological machine, where we can deal with the miss-firing of neurons that causes the imbalance in the brains bio-chemistry, with medication. We use medication to control or block the misfiring neuron pathways to re-balance our brain chemistry with varying degrees of success. In the past we have tried to re-set this imbalance with electric shock treatments, heavy sedation and mental health institutions. Today we are able to work with people in a way that integrates them into society and its ‘normal’ patterns of behaviour through better medication and counselling.

If I fancy fish ‘n’ chips because I have caught the aroma of them on the air, whether I am hungry or not, my desire for the taste determines my ‘need’ for eating them. I may not be hungry, but my desire for the taste, re-writes my reasoning protocols so that I can satisfy my desire. My problem is that too much saturated fat reacts with my digestion and can make me feel bloated and unsettled. So in my deliberation, which is the stronger: my desire for being sustained with a taste that I enjoy; or my realisation that too much, too often, will make me feel unwell? Rationally, I would choose to eat fish ‘n’ chips in moderation, perhaps as a treat; then the taste would remain special, and my diet would be improved. Emotionally however, I crave the taste and flavour more than I respect my body’s dietary requirements, so I become self-indulgent and suffer the consequences later! Let’s hope that I don’t treat more serious issues so casually…

There is a causal connection between our brain chemistry and our actions. If we hold what we know to be true or untrue of ourselves within our unconscious mind, when we need to make a decision, that which dominates our subconscious, will determine the course of any action we would pursue. For example, I always default leadership within a group, to those I deem more worthy… I never consider myself to be ‘worthy’ of taking a lead unless someone with institutional authority puts me into that role. I will always be at the back of the room for example, or feel inadequate in joining an unfamiliar group full of strangers, because I doubt myself and what I can offer others.

This brings to mind a reflection of my attitude during our church ‘sports-day’. I am not a sportsman and lack any sense of a competitive edge, much to my sporty son’s dismay. My need to prove myself physically is only a small part of my nature, perhaps due to my failure to perform well against my peers at such things in the past. I enjoy my cycling and even enjoy running, which I keep telling myself I ought to return to, but never do. So the motivational drivers to attend the church sports day were very low. I convinced myself that I could at least be sociable and perhaps sit and read my book.

So in a sense, I predetermined the outcome of the occasion through my negative evaluation of the experience I was likely to encounter. However, the Achilles’ heel to my plan is my limited social-interaction skills. I do have a repertoire of polite conversation starters, as we all do, but I am not the best at engaging people beyond the ordinary. This is why relationships and making connections is so important for our soul. The inevitable conclusion being that I had done my usual thing of isolating myself from the competitors of the sports day and those rushing around organising the event. I had relegated myself to an also-ran; I was in attendance to show my support, but I made no significant contribution.

In this place of solitude, the enemy has his way with me. The voice in my head speaks to me in that condescending tone that is both familiar and wearisome… “Look Roger, you don’t know how to interact with these people and they have left you to yourself… what possible hope have you got of being a church leader if you cannot even sustain these simple friendships… look at how well they all get on with each other and how they enjoy each other’s company, with you sat here on your own… look at all of those young adults that you have excluded yourself from by your actions, typical behaviour of yours to make yourself absent from their company… look at how much fun they are having and look at you sat here – it’s not as if you are that athletic of even ‘cool’ enough to spend time with them anyway… you have begun to think positively about yourself and now look, you are back in that same loathsome place!”

If I lived my life by my nature, I would have a miserable existence – believing in the lies I tell myself. If I doubt God’s truth for my life, I can be easily swayed by my conflicted emotion - Thank God that faith is not based on emotion! If it were so, my emotions would rob me of any sense of dignity from which I could pursue the ambition that God has birthed in my soul. However, with my emotions still raw from my internalised battle, I then encountered two more situations that would trigger my self-doubt. I was talking with one person who happened to mention that they had spoken at our churches homeless charity, the Storehouse, last Sunday. Immediately, that competitive edge that I deny exists in me, raises its voice inside my head and says – look, “Look, he has been asked to speak about Jesus in the storehouse Sunday service, and you haven’t.” This triggers again my self-doubt in a tsunami of emotions, thoughts and feelings pushing me back into that place of feeling jealous and inadequate.

The simple matter is that it wasn’t anything to do with the status of being asked to speak at a Christian presentation, but rather what I think about myself. I want to serve God in as many ways and opportunities that are created to do so. When I hear of others doing what I would love to do, it isn’t really jealousy as that is just my emotional response to what I have heard, but rather the yearning within me to serve. I would love to be able to serve God in a full time capacity, and was perhaps envious of the opportunity he had been given, to share how God has worked through his life.

Of upmost importance to me is that people don’t get the wrong idea and see me just as some religious person, but rather as someone who loves God. If I am seen as a religious person, then I have failed in my expression of love for the one who saved me from myself. Was my attitude at the sports day indicative of the person I had become? Was my distancing from the event a reflection of my ‘religious’ isolation? Am I not one in heart and mind with all believers?

All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had.

(Acts 4:32)

If my desire was to serve myself, then I would be lying to myself in trying to convince myself otherwise… my purpose is to serve God first, and in that have fellowship with those who share my faith. What more of me therefore, do I need to relinquish in order for the transforming work of the Holy Spirit to be revealed in my life? In the book of Acts, I have always quizzed the story of Ananias and Sapphira in chapter 5. Here is a man and his wife who have become Christians, and who have committed themselves to serving the church community by selling their property and giving the proceeds to the church leadership for distribution in the community. Both die. They die because they withhold from God, that which is his to use, and they lie about it.

But there was a certain man named Ananias who, with his wife, Sapphira, sold some property. He brought part of the money to the apostles, claiming it was the full amount. With his wife’s consent, he kept the rest. Then Peter said, “Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself. The property was yours to sell or not sell, as you wished. And after selling it, the money was also yours to give away. How could you do a thing like this? You weren’t lying to us but to God!” As soon as Ananias heard these words, he fell to the floor and died. Everyone who heard about it was terrified. Then some young men got up, wrapped him in a sheet, and took him out and buried him. About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. Peter asked her, “Was this the price you and your husband received for your land?” “Yes,” she replied, “that was the price.” And Peter said, “How could the two of you even think of conspiring to test the Spirit of the Lord like this? The young men who buried your husband are just outside the door, and they will carry you out, too.

(Acts 5: 1-9)

We do not know what transpired before this event except for the implied statements that their property and the proceeds from the sale was theirs to do as they willed. They must have promised to offer the full amount of the sale in order for the accusation that some of the profit was withheld from the community, being levelled at them. It is clear that the incident was meant as a message for the community to honour God with both their words and their actions.

So the question I have to ask myself is, ‘Do I really want to do this stuff for God because if I do, I will need to give it my all if I am serious about it.’ What price am I willing to pay in order to serve him? God demands all of us, not a small percentage reserved for when we want to feel religious –all of us. When I am willing to lay down my desire and my self-will, then I am able to access what God wants for me, and in so doing, recognise that what God wanted for me was in fact, the best thing that could have happened.

“So my advice is, leave these men alone. Let them go. If they are planning and doing these things merely on their own, it will soon be overthrown. But if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You may even find yourselves fighting against God!”

(Acts 5: 38-39)

I was brought-up by a controlling parent and therefore have a tendency to be submissive in certain situations where there are more assertive individuals. It’s probably what contributes to my lack of competitiveness. I always fear that I will not be accepted by others who I deem to be far more socially connected than me. When I have spoken out in public situations to champion something I have believed in, my comments have not always been well received and I have made mistakes in the past that I have had difficulty in reconciling with the conduct that was expected of me. So these things all add-up to feed my negative self-image and feed my reservations. Do these elements then add to my difficulties in making decisions or in seeing things positively and with optimism?

Psychologists would suggest that the negative feelings that I experienced, would be suppressed within my subconscious and I would repress memories or trivialise situations so as not to open-up old wounds. When life is hard and it feels as though my decision making and my conduct have led to consequences that challenge my core being, do I psychologically cycle-down into a ‘told-you-so mentality’, or are there any reserves within me that can counter that challenge? How many plates can I keep spinning before I lose control and my world crashes down around my ears? The neuroscientists would probably suggest none. The causal factors of my decision making and the pre-determination of my subconscious thinking, would indicate that what would happen, was going to be: ‘To be, or not to be? That is the question!’

To be, or not to be: that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep;

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come?

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause: there's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life;

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,

The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office and the spurns

That patient merit of the unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear?

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscovered country from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sickness o'er with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprises of great pith and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry,

And lose the name of action.

(William Shakespeare: Hamlet 3/1)

I am not a great reader of Shakespeare, nor until I wrote this blog, have I ever read the full speech contained in this passage from Hamlet. I'm not even sure of all the terms in the old English used here, but I hope you have caught the intent. Here is a discourse of a man wrestling with the questions of life. Are we causal beings determined by our biological reasoning, or are we more than the sum of our parts?

Neuroscience may show us a picture of how our minds are alive with thought, reason and action, but to suggest that there is no ‘us’ in that reasoning, is to reject any notion that we are in fact sentient beings with the right to choose our own destiny and the imagination to believe in a better world. We all dream of what is to come within our present reality, and make plans for the future. Our free will to choose is governed by our ability to make rational decision in respect of, or indeed, in spite of, what had gone on before. Our free will helps us to lift ourselves out of what we have become and helps us to inform our choices in the direction we want to take.

If we relegate our decision making to a set of pre-determined, sub-conscious pathways, we could argue in law, that our misdemeanour's were not conscious decisions, but a consequence of our bio-chemistry. The law does not cater for this type of logic – ‘I couldn't help myself.’ The law exists because we have a moral code and that society functions around an individual’s ability to exercise their personal integrity in their dealings with those in the community. A breakdown of these boundaries determines how we can make others responsible for their own actions when comparing what they have done against a standard that we all share in our community... the law of the land. Maybe this is why Ananias and Sapphira were judged to be unworthy and punished for their misdeeds:

“Perhaps, denying ones free will simply provide the ultimate excuse to behave as one likes.” (Neuroscientists Vohs and Schooler 2008)

“Soon, we must choose what is right, from that which is easy.”

(Professor Dumbledore: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)

It is in my weakness that I realise that I can’t spin all of the plates and that in fact, on reflection, I am tired of trying to keep them spinning. It is at these low point, of which there are a great many in life, when I have expended all of my energy, that my thoughts turn to how God could sustain me in life’s quest. When I look at where I am placing all of my energies in trying to keep my life going, I recognise that without Jesus in my life, it is in fact, all in vain. Jesus tells it like this:

Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? Of course not! And if worry can't do little things like that, what's the use of worrying over bigger things? "Look at the lilies and how they grow. They don't work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow, won't he more surely care for you? You have so little faith! And don't worry about food - what to eat and drink. Don't worry whether God will provide it for you. These things dominate the thoughts of most people, but your Father already knows your needs. He will give you all you need from day to day if you make the Kingdom of God your primary concern. "So don't be afraid, little flock. For it gives your Father great happiness to give you the Kingdom. "Sell what you have and give to those in need. This will store up treasure for you in heaven! And the purses of heaven have no holes in them. Your treasure will be safe -- no thief can steal it and no moth can destroy it. Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be.

(Luke 12: 24-34)

When we read what Jesus states about our irrational fear and the security that can be found in him, it perhaps indicates where Ananias and Sapphira went wrong. They were acting with duplicity in that they were trying to secure their future by storing a small sum of money for themselves, alongside the gift given to the apostles for use in the church community. They perhaps were not certain of their faith in what the apostles taught, by give everything away. In the natural we are all like that, trying to preserve what we have, while covenanting a tithe to our local churches. At this time though in the early church, the exercising of one’s faith meant more than mere tokenism. This is exactly what Ananias and Sapphira were being charged with. Their fate served as a warning to the rest of the assembled apostles and new disciples, that this was a serious business.

When I look up from my self-pity and gaze into the face of the one whose perfect love drives out all fear, I start to live. As I sit in the presence of God and receive his love; a love that is poured out for each one of us who have faith in the death of his son Jesus; I think of my life now in the light of his glorious resurrection, and find that I can be at one with myself and with the world. Oh yes, my old self keeps getting in the way of this peace, but Jesus’ love goes on protecting me because he cherishes my life more than he did his own. On the cross when he cried: ‘It is finished!’ it was my life too and the person that I had become, that was forgiven. The condemnation that I felt for the life I have lived ended at the cross. His love wants to protect me from future harm and from the pain of bad decisions, but he gives me free will to make that choice to believe in this truth.

Do I choose to follow him, or do I go back to my own way? I know that I should do what he wants me to do in my subconscious thoughts, but my conscious self is so preoccupied with me and how I feel, I miss the nuances of what Jesus has being trying to say. Who am I that I can reject God so often and yet demand so much from him; to think that I am worthy of such attention? But worthy I am. Jesus’ cousin John said he wasn't worthy so much as to untie the straps form the sandals on Jesus’ feet, a servants job… yet we can sit with him at his table, and eat with him, share with him, commune with him. We are made blameless and spotless in his sight but we are reminded as we sit at his table that it wasn't without cost – Jesus paid for us to be there with his life.

Jesus’ love has integrity and honesty. He is not self-seeking, but speaks the words of his father. His love is tempered with forgiveness and compassion. Who are we to go around telling people what is right and what is wrong, just because we have glimpsed a lit bit of God’s kingdom? Let God be the judge of the choices we make so that all can enter into his grace and mercy. None of us is greater than the next; just as when the disciples argued whether they would sit to the right or to the left of Jesus. There is no hierarchy or significance in God’s kingdom – all those that choose to follow him are accepted.

Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.

(Hebrews 10: 24-25)

It is because we are in a relationship with Jesus, that we can begin to make sense of those things in our lives, which may have contributed to the decisions we have made in the past. Jesus helps us to knock down our defences and loosen our grip of those areas in our lives which are unedifying. The Holy Spirit fills us with his presence so that we can be encouraged and comforted by him; he helps us to care about the things that he places on our heart. When this relationship is out-of-sync between what we choose to do, and what God’s will is for us, we are going to appear dysfunctional. When our lives are in synergy with God’s will for us through the consuming work of the Holy Spirit, then all goes well with us. My purpose is not to be so in tune with my culture that it invades my character and I lose my focus on God.

So earlier, when I have spoken about my sense of loneliness and my perceptions of unworthiness within my culture, God through the work of the Holy Spirit is able to banish these emotions as he starts a new creation within my heart. When you start to build a new building, you have to begin with the foundations. Recognising that Jesus atones for my past mistakes, releases me into this new foundation – a new beginning. No longer will I be the unworthy ‘slave’ to my negative consciousness, but I will be released from that which holds me captive.

Where my old nature has made me reserved and a little conservative in my personality and the forms of self-expression that I employ, he releases me from all of that… I can’t hide behind my reserved British nature either! If I truly know the love of Jesus in my heart and understand his truth then like Peter, I will tell others of the love that has filled me with an inexpressible joy (1 Peter 1:8).

Prozac may be prescribed today as society’s most popular medication in dealing with depressing lives that we live, but it is not really going to be a substitute to fulfilling society’s deeper longing. Only following the will of God will do that. Medication can only have a placebo effect in comparison to what we can experience as sons and daughters to the living God. Yes Prozac is a somewhat powerful anti-depressant, used in the treatment of many with mental health issues, but until we truly know God, our dependence on it is just a transition to something better.

When we first encounter God’s presence through the Holy Spirit and his sense of justice and his compassion, it can be a painful experience like being in the pangs of childbirth. No mum wants to remember the pain they experience in the birth of their child, but the release of Joy, pure joy that comes from that maternal bond, soon pushes aside any memory of the pain in favour of nurturing their new-born child. Later on they might describe it as being the worst experience of their life but yet, at the same time, the pain was a necessary part of something most wonderful. This is the same Joy that we can find in our re-birth as sons and daughters of the living God.

Joy is often a transient emotion of something that makes us happy but which is gone in a moment. If we are lucky enough to remember those moments in time when we experience true joy, we learn to treasure these moments and store them in memory. Having the Holy Spirit dwell in you makes you notice how much of this world, God cares about. He fills you with joy because as you recognise your sense of purpose in this world, you start to live life in partnership with the God who cares deeply for what it is you are doing.

As you regain your identity as a child of God and choose to live for him, it fills him with joy. As in any relationship, when you learn to serve others, you learn to love unconditionally; and you learn to bring the Kingdom of God down to the Earth by your acts of kindness and your generosity – what greater task can there be?

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing; fix your thoughts on what is true, and honourable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you have learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.

(Philippians 4: 8-9)