Paradigm.  Why did I choose it as the name of my blog?  Because it’s a powerful word.  It says more in eight letters than many entire books say from cover to cover.  Let’s look at the word itself.

Paradigm– pronounced as para-dime is defined as “a model or pattern of thinking that is repeatedly used.”  It’s like wearing sunglasses on a bright afternoon.  Everything you see has to go through the lens of those glasses and into your eyes before your brain can tell you what you’re seeing.  If you wear yellow tinted glasses, the world will look jaundiced.  And if you wear super-polarized lenses you might think it’s dusk, even when it’s midday.  Everything you see will be tinted by the sunglasses you choose to wear.  A person sitting on the rooftop of a skyscraper might be inspired by the incredible view, or terrified by the possibility of falling.  Energized by beauty or paralyzed by fear, it all depends upon his paradigm– his repeated pattern of thinking– about heights.

Paradigms are a part of all of our lives.  We cannot escape them.  A child who grows up without knowing the love of an earthly father, will surely have a hard time relating to the Heavenly Father.  As a result he may never discover what a father can and should be for his own children, who in turn may pass the deficit on for generations who will each share one thing in common– seeing life through a paradigm of fatherlessness.

A woman who has been hurt deeply by a man may tend to reject all men as abusive.  And someone who had a bad church experience as a young person will most likely avoid church as an adult.  It’s the nature of things.  It fits the definition well:  “a model or pattern of thinking that is repeatedly used.”

So, if we all see life through patterns of thinking that are often repeated, shouldn’t we check out those patterns for flaws?  

A faulty paradigm can bring misery to many.  For several centuries it was understood by the highest trained physicians that sickness and disease was a result of contaminated blood.  So when George Washington came down with something similar to the flu in 1799, his doctors bled him repeatedly to get rid of the bad blood.  It was the accepted practice of the day.  It made perfect sense to them.  Ultimately it caused our Founding Father to grow weaker and weaker until he died at the relatively young age of 67.   Today we cringe when we think of the practice of “blood letting” a patient who is sick.  But that was a paradigm of medical treatment of the day– and it was wrong, dead wrong.

I am convinced that people suffer many things in life needlessly because they have the paradigms wrong.  Their faulty patterns of thinking have plunged multiple generations into deep, deep pits of hopelessness.  A paradigm shift is needed.  

Christians are given the key to paradigm shift.   Philippians 2:5 tells us to “have the same mindset as Christ Jesus…”  Yes, there IS such a thing as a Christian Paradigm.  Our pattern of thinking flows through Biblical truth and is modeled after the Creator himself as we follow Jesus.  We are invited to view everything through glasses tinted with Christ.  No longer do we have to view the world with a bitterness paradigm, or a victim paradigm.  We get to view it through lenses of hope, and forgiveness, and resurrection.

Through a supernatural encounter with Jesus Christ, and through the daily work of the Holy Spirit, a personal paradigm shift can really happen.  We can actually change the way we think, and the patterns of thinking that we repeatedly use can bring life and healing instead of hopelessness and pain.

And that’s why I chose to title my blog PARADIGM.  The word, paradigm is actually a combination of two Greek words– para (meaning side by side) and digma (meaning to show or compare).  Perhaps, over time, my readers can see the excellence of the Paradigm of Christ over all other patterns of thinking– and initiate a personal paradigm shift.                                                              

“Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious––the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.”       Philippians 4:6-9 Message