God Can Change Your Brain

Now that is a provocative title if I ever wrote one. Am I just being radical to get your attention or is it true that God can change your brain and my brain?

I have been studying the brain for some time. I am certainly not an expert on the brain, and even if I were I would be a novice because God put together the most complicated and interesting organic machine imaginable when He made the human brain. I am amazed by the speed, power and memory of a computer. However, no computer can stand up to the brain of a tiny baby let alone an adult.

In my last post I showed a diagram of a brain. A simple diagram. A very simple diagram. Yet, we can get a sense of how the brain works by looking at it. First of all, the brain consists of quite different parts. Each of those parts seems to be there for a certain purpose. Some parts seem to hold one kind of memory and another part another kind. And, there are pathways that allow communication from one part to another.

For several years I have used what is called, "Cognitive Psychology" to help people who are distressed. The most common kinds of distress are called "Mood Disorders" and that means Anxiety and/or Depression. Cognitive Psychology is based on the notion that most feelings are caused by the way we think. In other words, emotions are not independent or caused by the actions of others but by the ideas, self talk, values and thinking of ourselves.

For example, a husband may go to a Counselor and say, "My wife made me so mad that I cursed at her." As a Cognitive Counselor I would listen to his explanations but say to myself, "His wife did something he disagreed with and he made himself mad." This approach is consistent with the Bible. you may remember that St. Paul, whose thorn in the flesh was possibly anger, wrote, "Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your own mind".

Let me paraphrase Paul to this husband: "Joe, your wife is not making you mad. You are conforming to her behavior and to be peaceful you need to renew your mind. Do not give your wife power over your thinking and feelings."

If a person goes through life and conforms to the world's thinking, as we all tend to do, then we actually build "Pathways of Habits" that become like ruts on a road. These pathways will automatically, it seems, cause me to get mad when something happens that I do not like. Those pathways need to be changed if I am to develop the fruit of patience and kindness. (The Bible calls these pathways, "The Flesh".

Fleshly Habits are powerful. St. Paul says in Romans 7 they caused him to do things he knew were wrong. "I know what is right but I cannot do it." Theologians call the ongoing process from "walking in the flesh" to "walking in the Spirit" Progressive Sanctification. It takes time, energy, spiritual practices and support from others to progress from fruit of the flesh to spiritual fruit. (See Galatians 5 for a list of each.)

Research with brain scans over the past few decades show that certain spiritual exercises can actually cause different parts of the brain to light up on the scanners. Prayers cause one part to light up because it is changing. Worship causes another apart. Meditation impacts another. So, in a way we can say that a relationship with God changes the brain. Just as physical exercises change the body spiritual exercises change the soul and our brain is the hardware of the soul.