Last week, my wife and I took our teenagers and a couple of their friends to the county fair. The kids headed for the carnival rides and we strolled through the booths and the animal barns enjoying the different sights and sounds, and sat for a while in the grass round listening to the Beach Boys entertain 2 or 3 thousand fans.

Near the end of the evening, we headed over to the carnival to find the rest of our group. What a cacophony of sight, sound, taste, smell and touch we became immersed in. Music blaring from loud speakers on every ride, children screaming from the top of their lungs as they were swooshed through the air in motions that took their breath away, the smell of popcorn, candy and fried food saturating the surround, red, blue and yellow lights blinking and glaring in all directions, and food, food, food, being consumed by hundreds of mouths all around.

Kathy, my wife, commented, “This environment is an assault on all five physical senses!” And so it was.

It can be easy to forget about God and lose one’s sense of spiritual connection when engrossed with pure physical stimulation, especially all five senses at once.

It certainly was an opportunity to pray and defend oneself from allowing that to occur.

After we left the county fair and its loud noise, bright lights and floating aromas, it occurred to me that mortal mind has other types of carnivals we encounter in life too. And they often are not so blatant and in your face.

For instance, have you ever groused about some complaint in your mind over and over again all day long? You get so occupied with the objection that it monopolizes your mental attention, adversely affects your attitude, darkens your outlook and depresses your spirit? It’s like a carnival scene in your thinking. Mortal mind is running rampant, distracting you from spiritual truth, making you feel separated from God, and diminishing hope.

Fear can be another carnival scene. When indulged, it would overwhelm our inner senses and thus affect everything outwardly we do.

It was a revelation for me to see the different types of carnivals mortal mind constructs to pull people in and re-direct their energies.

The belief of disease is another carnival scene. If allowed, it would grip all five physical senses at times.

Bitter conflict, hatred, anger are carnivals to avoid also.

“Don’t enter the carnival of mortal mind!” I decided.

I’m not getting down on carnivals—the fun kind at county fairs. Our kids had a good time and we thoroughly enjoyed a family night out. But it is helpful to keep our spiritual perspective when entering the entertainment world of the human mind. We keep ourselves sane and balanced when we seek spiritual lessons from our engagements, and leave them a better thinker for the experience.

“To be spiritually minded is life and peace.” Apostle Paul