Too Many Mind…
So I have been out of town for a time but while away I re-watched* the movie The Last Samurai. It is one of my favorites primarily because I really like the culture of that time. As I am watching it again, one part jumped off the screen at me. I won’t go into all the details of the movie so if you haven’t seen it, do, but here are some background details for context.
Tom Cruise plays Captain Nathan Algren (the movie is set around the time era of General Custer). He is hired to train the Japanese Army in modern fighting techniques. During the first battle with a Samurai clan he is captured. During his time in captivity he writes and studies the people, culture and their way of life. He eventually tries to learn their fighting techniques.
In this particular scene he is trying to learn sword fighting techniques. He has a wooden katana sword (bokken) and is up against an empty-handed opponent. There are people around watching. He goes to attack the opponent and gets the sword taken from him and he gets thrown to the ground. That is when it happens…
One of the Samurai warriors comes up to him as he is sitting on the ground and says, “So sorry, Too Many Mind.” The Captain says, “Too Many Mind?” and the warrior says, “Mind the sword, Mind the people watching, Mind the enemy, Too Many Mind…No Mind”. So the captain repeats again, “Too Many Mind” and the movie goes on. Later he uses this lesson to see what is going to happen before they happen. It also allows him, in another scene, to react without thinking and destroy the enemy. ” No mind.”
I thought of this and the movie scene during a worship service at our church one Sunday. “Too Many Mind”. I mind the sword (the gifts and weapons He has given me, I mind the people “watching” (even if they are not) and I mind the enemy (what he is saying about how messed up I am). This prevents me from seeing things as they really are. It also prevents me from reacting with the truth as I know it without thinking and to destroy the enemy of my soul.
Now I am not talking about emptying your mind in an Eastern Culture meditation kind of way. That allows the enemy to come in all the more. I am talking about emptying your mind of the distractions that prevent us from seeing things with God as they really are. If you are His then you have relationship. He is always there “I will never leave you, nor forsake you”. It is up to us to lay things aside which distract us from that fact. Hebrews 12:1 “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us”.
If you are His, He will give you the gifts you need to accomplish all He has for you. If you are His, He will give you the weapons you need to fight the enemy. If you are His then He will show you things as they really are. If you are His then He will show you how to react without thinking, thus destroying the enemy. If you are His…
Now when I try to enter His presence and get distracted, I will hear a gentle reminder saying, “So Sorry, Too Many Mind…No Mind”. Or as we say in the military, “it’s mind over matter, if you don’t mind, it don’t matter”.
*Re-watched is probably not a real word but I am known for making words up and it fits so…
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