Thinking about thinking.

Therefore, think on these things…take every thought captive…as a man or woman thinks, so is he or she.  There are so many places in God’s Word that we are instructed to pay attention to our thinking and now---as if we should be surprised—neuroscience confirms what the Bible has said all along.  How we think matters.  It matters a LOT!  

Scientists and research folks now agree that how we think determines how our brain functions.  How our brain functions determines how our body functions, how we process our emotions and how we live our lives.  We can determine the constitution of our health, our relationships and our life.  Dr. Caroline Leaf in “Switch on Your Brain;The Key to Peak Happiness,Thinking and Health", comments that current research affirms that what we think is even more powerful than our genetic disposition. 

When the Apostle Paul shares in the book of Romans that he is “doing the very thing that I hate”, he carries on about knowing what to do and not doing it…wanting to do something and doing another thing… then finally laments, “oh, wretched man that I am!”  What makes us do what we do, even when we want to do something or say something different?

Most of us know about the fight, flight or freeze response to pain or danger (perceived or real), but most of us are not aware that there is a limbic response going on in most of the actions we choose to take.  Perhaps we could say, all? Someone will say something that may “trigger” a response in us to say or do something in defense, even though we know we are not really in eminent danger.  I admit that my husband may say or do something quite innocent and non-threatening in his mind and yet

What Story do you share?

Whenever I am travelling or visiting a new place, inevitably I will run into a new person or two.  I am always interested in what story a person shares about his/her life when we first meet.  A while ago, my husband and I were out for a walk in a little neighborhood where we were staying on a “winter break”.  Some friends of ours let us stay in their house in Costa Rica for 3 weeks to escape the foggy gloom of Sacramento in February. 

We met “Tom” out in his driveway watering his tropical plants.  His face was somewhat worn and when he smiled it was evident that he had not visited the dentist quite enough in his life.  We exchanged the proper “Buenos diases’” and “como esta’s’”  …. “where are you from?”and “how long have you been here?” –the usual.  Very quickly, “Tom” decided to share with us explicit details of how he and his wife met and how they kept going to Cabo to get married, how they partied too much each time and finally 10  or maybe 15 years later they finally did get married and now he was retired here in Costa Rica.  Wow, did we need to know all that?  I walked away wondering what it is that inspires us to tell a story of our life, and which one we choose to share when we first meet another—a stranger.  We all have a story, perhaps not all of our stories are as “colorful” as Tom’s, but none-the-less it is always a story that needs redemption.