What We Believe (introduction)
I started learning about the brain in a graduate class about 15 years ago, and since then the more I learn, the more I want to know. I love studying about the brain. How it works and how our emotions and thoughts affect each other is fascinating to me. Recently I was able to teach a ladies’ bible class about all this brain research called What We Believe and so I thought I would share that information with you.
Do you have thoughts you want to get our of your head? Maybe you say or do things that you want to change? We all do but can we really change? For a long time scientists have believed that our brains are the way they are and that’s just it. They are made that way when we are young and they stay that way. And there’s no way to change that. Thankfully, science is constantly improving and sometimes they even figure out that they are completely wrong. Now, scientists know that the brain can change and that we are not set in stone. We can change. We can grow. We can transform our minds.
We have a command to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. The word transform means to “make a thorough or dramatic change in the form, appearance, or character” (dictorionary.com). In this case we are being commanded to make a thorough or dramatic change in our mind, our thinking. And if the Bible commands us to do something, that means that God has made it possible for us to do so. We can transform our thinking and what we believe. But how do we do that?
Let’s start with a little information about the brain.
(Don’t let the sciency stuff scare you.)
In our brains are neurons, along with a lot of other things but let’s focus on neurons. When doctors take scans of the brain and ask people questions, areas of the brain will light up. Those “lights” are the electrical signals between neurons. That’s where the thoughts are. When we think, neurons are activated, so to put it simply, neurons are what make up our thoughts.
As we grow and learn, we make new neurons. It reminds me of how God made the creation with just His words. We create neurons with just our thoughts when we learn something new. (You may have just created a new neuron right then. How cool is that?) Then the new neurons connect to existing neurons, or existing thoughts, through the dendrites and axons in what is called a synapse. When we think about or remember something, a stimulus occurs in a neuron, and the stimulus is passed down to a connecting neuron which activates another thought.
Have you ever wondered why your thoughts wander? You think of a plane which makes you think of the sky which makes you wonder why the sky is blue which makes you think of how you argued about the color sky blue or light blue in second grade, then you think of the kid in second grade who picked his nose …. and the thoughts continue. All of those thoughts happen in a split second because of the electrical signals between neurons. It’s absolutely amazing what our brain can do.
And just like our brain creates new neurons, it can also get rid of old neurons. These are neurons or thoughts that aren’t used anymore. You know the movie Inside Out. If you haven’t seen it, you should watch it. It’s a great brain movie. That movie is about what is happening inside Riley’s head when she thinks and makes memories. Some of these memories stay for years and others
turn grey. In the movie, these two guys walk around in Riley’s brain and vacuum up the grey memories to get rid of them. Riley doesn’t use them anymore so they gotta go.
Our brains work very similarly. There are chemicals (hormones) in our brain that get rid of unused neurons. If you’ve ever tried to remember something and just can’t think of it, that might be why. It’s a neuron you don’t use often and so it’s fading away. The neurons we use more have more connections to other neurons and have more electrical signals and hormones running through them.
Ok so why does all this matter? So what? Our brains are awesome and do cool things, but who cares?
Think about kindergarten. The classroom, the teacher, the kids, the projects, the woven naptime rugs, the smell of crayons and construction paper. When you think of kindergarten, your neurons are reacting. But there’s something else going on too. Your emotions are activating through hormones in your brain. We have literal feelings when we think about something because of hormones.
Now think about going to the dentist to get a cavity filled. The needle numbing your mouth. Holding your mouth open when someone scrapes and pushes with tools. If we had a scan of your brain, all those neurons would be lighting up like a Christmas tree because of the emotion connected with getting a cavity filled.
Two different thoughts with two different emotional responses (unless you had an awful kindergarten teacher in which case it be might the same emotional response). Neurons are the thoughts in our brains and hormones are the feelings in our brain that spread throughout our bodies. What we think affects how we feel and ultimately what we say and how we act. That’s why all this brain stuff matters. What we think and what we believe matters.
The Word of God has a lot to say about what we think.
What would we talk about if we thought on “such things”…instead of all the things that bother us or anger us or just the things of this world? How would we act if our thoughts were on what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy? These are questions that we need to consider because how we live comes directly from what we think which comes from what we believe to be true. How do we get our minds to transform and “think about such things”?
Transforming our minds is not something that will happen by accident. It takes daily, persistent effort to get up every morning and think about the things that are true and right and pure and lovely. This is not a casual “Oh, I really need to stop thinking that way” kind of thing. Transformation is deliberate. It’s taking the thoughts captive at spear point and making them obey Christ. It’s not allowing evil thoughts to stay in our minds for even one second.
Yes, we can transform our minds and change to be more like Christ. Yes, it is completely possible to get rid of sinful thoughts in our minds. It might not be easy. It will definitely take work but it will be so worth it.
So let’s start today.
What is one thought you need to get out of your mind? Maybe you know what it is right away or maybe not. Maybe you have too many and don’t know where to start. That’s ok. Starting with prayer is better anyway. Whether you have a thought in mind to get rid of or not, pray that God will show you exactly what you need to work on. And when you know, write it down specifically. Like this…if you say, “I need to work on not being angry.” well, that’s too general. Think: I need to not get angry with my kids or I need to stop being frustrated with slow drivers. Choose one situation. One thought at a time.
What we believe matters. It matters for our lives but more importantly it matters to our Lord God. So let’s transform our minds.
