Refresh My Broken Mind

Mar 14, 2026 | By Grant Shanklin SY ‘27

Great are you, O Lord, and exceedingly worthy of praise [1]. Though we come from dust and to dust we shall return, You have given us life through Your wonderful act of creation [2]. As the created, we long to know You, our Creator.

For us to know You and all that You’ve made, God, You have promised a sound mind [3]. But my mind is not. 

I’m confused reading Your Word. Sitting down to pray, I’m distracted. My thoughts are dis-integrated and my reasoning is muddled. You command us to set our minds on the things above, but my mind is stuck with its thoughts on the things of the earth.

As the deer longs for streams of water, so too I long for You, O God [4]. I long to know You and all Your mighty works. 

I hear testimonies of a flourishing ‘intellectual life’ and a healthy ‘life of the mind’ and know that’s what I desire [5]. You have placed this desire in me, Lord, prior to any rational justification I could proffer.

But today, sin and the fall still mar my mind. I have a broken mind. What am I to do? Teach me, Lord, to both rest in the confidence of your promise and work towards its fulfillment, for both are what you command. 

Vocation is doing the work You have placed before me, and doing it well. As a student, I work and sometimes toil, and then work some more—the work of reading, thinking, and writing—attempting to live vocationally. I pray this work is oriented towards the end of a formation in virtue and the cultivation of the mind, all of which points back to knowing You and Your creation. This is the work of healing my broken mind.

In this work, I praise You for Your abundant provision. I am grateful for the beauty of the way You have set before me and the goodness of the wayfarers You have placed beside me [6]. The great history of thinkers who have left behind a tradition to assist in this work is a gift from You.

However, while this work is good—and I will continue at it—Lord, work will never be enough. Work will always be insufficient for both the healing of my mind and my salvation. 

Teach me, Lord, how to both rest in the confidence of your promise and work towards its fulfillment. Out of Your goodness, You provide the possibility and the means of healing my broken mind; on this I trust.

And if the answer to this prayer is to “keep your mind in hell and despair not,” I will not despair [7]. Yet, I still humbly approach You, Almighty God:

Lord, in Your mercy, You promise the renewal of our minds [8].

Lord, in Your power, refresh my broken mind [9].

[1]  Psalm 48:1; The opening of this confessional prayer mirrors the opening of Augustine’s, Confessions, rooting the narrative in God’s greatness and power.

[2] Genesis 3:19.

[3] 2 Timothy 1:7.

[4] Psalm 42:1.

[5] Examples include King, Nathan L. The Excellent Mind: Intellectual Virtues for Everyday Life. Oxford University Press, 2021; Sertillanges, A. G. The Intellectual Life. CUA Press, 1992.

[6] Graver, Lawrence. Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot. Cambridge University Press, 2004 (Paraphrasing Estragon in Act I).

[7] Sofroniĭ, Archimandrite. Saint Silouan, the Athonite. St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1999 (See Chapter XI).

[8] Romans 12:2.

[9] Inspriation for the title, this line, as well as the overall theme of this reflection, is owed to Mumford and Son’s song The Cave (2009).