What would Jesus think? (If He was on this earth in his senior years)

Jesus only made it to his 32nd year.  Here is a question I have often mused over, what if Jesus made it to his 62, 72 or even 92 year of age.  How would his brain have developed given that increase in time?  He certainly is considered one of the greatest Sages of all time, but how would Jesus think at 92 versus 32 years of age?

Not long ago bracelets with WWJD (What would Jesus do?) were popularized. In this article I want to muse about WWJT (What would Jesus think?)

Neuroscience has learned a lot about how we think, and how the brain develops. Dr. Dan Seigel has found that the teenage brain rewires itself at the fastest rate during this time of our life (3,000 times faster than any other time of life).  His book Brain Storm likens the fast brain changes in the 12^th to 24^th year of age to be like a brain storm.  Jesus went through this fast paced brain acceleration during His life. In fact, He thought and taught on a level beyond the teaching of His time.

Neuroscientists used to think the gel around the neurons was just used to hold things together.  They now know that this gel is like fertilizer called PRND.  It helps develop new neurons when emotionally charged thoughts takes place.  When we learn new things (at any age) we actually are creating new pathways in our brain (example: worry pathways, or thanksgiving pathways).  Rehearsing is the term used to describes these new pathways being reinforced.  If we do not continue to rehearse PRND pro will snip off those neural connections we are not using.  I guess that is what happened to the French I used to know in High School – SNIP! SNIP!

Harvard teacher Dr. Tan has discovered there is a type of pre-Alzheimer’s disease that occurs 5 years before the onset of this disease.  Plaque attacks the neural flow in the brain and takes away short term memory.  Dr. Tan has found this pre-Alzheimer period can be staved off by 5 years.  Rehearsing is a big part of slowing down this process.  Learning a new language, rehearsing a new musical instrument, keeping challenge and the spark of variety in our lives is so important in keeping the brain functioning at its maximum.

Stress and depression also affect the area where short term memory takes place (hippocampus).  Stress literally shrinks the hippocampus of the brain. Spiritual formation guru and teacher at Dallas Theological Seminary Dallas Willard talked about the one character trait that he felt most described Jesus was RELAXED!  Jesus knew how to pace his life with strategic retreats before and after each major ministry event in his life. Perhaps this relaxation and prayer in life had a preserving component for his hippocampus.

Penn State neuroscientist Andrew Newburg in his book God can change your Brain documents brain scans he conducted on various people during religious practice.  He found that thinking about God lights up your brain like a Christmas tree. He believes he has found wiring in our DNA that is preset to discover God. Jesus would do nothing without the direction of the Father.  His mind was always on the Father.  Does this means Jesus brain was constantly lite up as he spent time with the Father of Lights.

Dr. Newburg also looked for a people group that did not tend to get Alzheimer’s.  He found Nuns did not tend to get the disease because of their religious practices.  These are some of the reasons he gives for his reasoning:

1. They have no financial stress – their oath of poverty allows for the church /God to take care of them.

2. Caring for others and altruism lows stress levels.

3. They have common community and support.

4. They pray daily and this lowers stress levels.

5. Plus they do not have to deal with husbands – ha! (My wife’s point)

Newburg also discovered that prayer and meditation light up the parietal lobe (the crinkly upper layer of the brain behind our ears) and that this part of the brain has direct neural connections to the amygdala of the brain (fear and anger center of the brain). PET scans showed that prayer would calm the entire brain and put it in a condition of calm.  Or was it the relaxation that Dallas Willard described about Jesus.  The God-man who certainly practiced a life of prayer.

Jesus had the exact balance of everything that current neuroscience documents our brain thrives on.  I have no doubt that he would not have suffered Alzheimer’s had he made it to a ripe old age.

The more we use a particular area of the brain we lay down Myelin sheath (like fiber optic vs digital pathways in our brain).  This “rehearsing” speeds up the brain’s efficiency.  Jesus was said to teach at a level beyond the teachers of his day.  He also taught with authority, and interpreted scripture from the Old Testament.  Jewish tradition dictated that only a Shema priest had the authority to interpret scripture.  All children of Jesus’ day memorized the Torah (the first 5 books of the Old Testament).  Exceptional students would be chosen to continue deeper study.  A Shema priest had to memorize the entire Old Testament.  During our contemporary times, few teens would be able to memorize even the first 5 books of the Bible.  Most teens today just want to google it – not remember it.  Our memories have become underdeveloped today as we rely on modern technology.

It must have been amazing to sit at the feet of Jesus as scripture flowed forth from his memory. I will just continue to muse …. What Would Jesus Think?

Rev. Murray Kingwell is the 50 Plus director of the Western Ontario District of the PAOC.  He is also operators counselling offices in Mississauga, Milton, Hamilton and Brantford Ontario and is a Registered Psychotherapist with the province of Ontario.

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Your Giving Out Advice Nobody Wants to Hear

Negative Advice Givers.

You know these people.

A lot of their sentences start with the phrase, 

“You know… there’s a better way to do that.”

They might start with good intentions, but it always comes out like criticism.

Many of these negative people actually have good ideas and could be extremely helpful, it’s just that no one wants to listen to them because they’re just…

Well they’re just negative.

“Here - you’re doing it wrong. Let me show you the most effective way.”

Negative advice givers come in all forms.

            - Parents

            - Friends

            - Bosses

These people violate two cardinal rules for teaching or mentoring

1) A NEGATIVE ADVICE GIVER MAY HAVE MISJUDGED YOUR DESIRE FOR ADVICE.

They forget that you may actually want to try it your way first. Trial and error is one of the most concrete ways to pick up new skills. They’re giving you good information and are actually looking out for your best interest, trying to save you from error. But they are forgetting that the very reason they know the lesson so well is that it was them had to learn it through trial and error in the first place. Trial and error is not always a bad thing. Once burned, twice shy.

2) NOT EVERYONE IS WELL POSITIONED TO GIVE OUT ADVICE TO EVERYONE ELSE.

If a negative person is constantly criticizing you, it’s highly unlikely that you’re looking to them when you want help. People seek out those that believe in them, that respect them, and that focus on problem solving rather than pointing out error. This makes it tough for a negative person to help be part of the solution even when they have the best advice or solution.

Proverbs 11:10 said it this way:, “When good people succeed,the city is happy. When evil people die, there are shouts of joy.

We all fall into this trap at times. We see someone doing something wrong, that we know how to do right, but we just blow it when it comes to lending a hand.

Instead of starting off by saying, “I love helping with home projects, can you tell me a little about what your doing here?” we go in pig headed and say “I’m really good at home projects, can I show you a few things you’re doing wrong?

One is an invitation to let the person explain what they know, and might be followed by a question help.

The other tells the person they suck and you don’t. Which person would you rather work with.

Listen, we all know you are smart, skilled and ready to help.

Let’s just all try to find a better way of offering our expertise to the world.

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Renewing Your Mind

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Renewing the Mind PT 1

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Does Everything Happen for a Reason

They say everything happens for a reason.

But what if it doesn’t?

We humans are creatures that like to be able to give purpose to every event, but I’m not so sure life works that way.

Yes - I think we can learn something from everything we experience good or bad. We grow, become more mature. But did it always happen for a reason? I don’t think so.

To say that God willfully controls all these bad things that happen in our lives paints a very different picture of God than I know. We live in a broken world where sin results in broken beings doing broken things to each other. Our bodies break down, selfishness leads to broken relationships and broken dreams. I can’t say that all this brokenness happens for a purpose.

I can say that I have a relationship with a loving God that uses brokenness to draw me closer to Him. To give me cause to trust Him more. To help me continually anticipate a day when there will be no more sin, pain and brokenness. He may work every situation that I experience for good (Rom 8:28), but not every situation is good.

It’s only human for us to want to have good reason for why we experience the painful situation we did.

It gives us a sense of control. A sense of order.

But the story of humanity is one that lost control when it sought to gain it.

I just believe in a God big enough to allow bad things to happen outside of his perfect will for our lives, and still trust that he has perfection waiting for me on the other side.

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The Lie of the Guidance Counselor

Life is never as straightforward as we would like it to be.
It's funny how the older as person gets, the more we realize that we cannot control our future. There are times that we point ourselves in a certain direction, but the place we end up is somewhere quite different, and you look back and feel "well how the  heck did I end up here?"

Remember doing aptitude testing in grade school? You sit down with a counselor and answer 25 questions and BAM - they gave you a list of 10 occupations perfectly suited for you. You could be a pilot, an entertainer or a mailman. You were to choose these courses in high school and all the guess work  was now taken out of play. Life was under control and you were on your way.

Obviously it never ends up that way. If averages hold true, most of us will work in  7-10 different career fields over the course of our lives. We'll have major transitions in what our personal life. We'll live in different cities (or countries) and experience things we never dreamed of nor planned for. I'm 34 and have worked in 4 or 5 different career fields, changed from a fast-food eating machine at 20 to a vegetable smoothie lover at 30. I spent three years pursuing a masters degree that I only spent 1 year utilizing in that specific career field. Really I blame my guidance counselor. His computer program was obviously faulty. It said pilot.

I think the coolest thing about it all is that God knew and made sure we were ready. While we thought we were preparing for one thing, he was really just using that phase of life to help us gain skills to succeed in the next. I suppose the biggest learning is that what we are doing is not as important as learning while we are doing it. Every phase of life seems to offer us a chance to learn about ourselves, our strengths and our growth areas. It gives us an opportunity to acquire a new skill or a new perspective on life. We may think that we have the next step all figured out, but then things change or God speaks, and life moves you in a brand new direction.

And that's OK. The next change is really nothing more than a new opportunity to grow - a chance to experience life in a brand new way

Love to hear your responses - and maybe a place or a job you never dreamed you would be in.

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Self Control

I’ve worked with teenagers for more than 10 years and any story you can imagine I’ve heard, witnessed or experienced. They light themselves on fire with hairspray, shoot fireworks at each other in a tag game, surf on the back of moving vehicles, put icy/hot rub in places that should never be “icy-hotted” and and and. Self control is not exactly the cornerstone of life for teenagers.

 

This past week I read a few articles in SI about what happens when athletes start to get out of control. Murder charges, failed marriages, PED allegations or even just professional extortion as they vie for a bigger contract from another team in their free agent years.

 

Then this morning I open up the book of Titus and it reads as follows:

 

Titus 2: 6:7

“Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. ⁷ In everything set them an example by doing what is good.”

 

The Bible is always so simple, yet so counter-intuitive to how we live. We feel big when we tell stories of all the crazy things we did/experienced over the weekend, but here we are encouraged to make our younger years be marked by wisdom and self control

 

Which takes more strength – going along with the crowd when something is going down, or having the will power to say no because you want to live wisely?

To stand up for what is right, or to give in to temptation?

 

Great reminder today from the scripture about self control. I guess I’m coming to the cusp of no longer being in “my younger years”, but I don’t ever want to come to the place where someone could say that I had lost control.

 

My prayer for today and for life – Lord help me live large and love life, without ever losing control.

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