Can We Rewire Our Minds for Spiritual Reality?
The other day I stumbled onto another way of thinking about the mind.
Since we know that mental development is physiological, resulting in a kind of biological hardwiring, I think we must all have these conduits in our minds. The conduits are carved and widened by habit. Since my visualization of the mind is sketchy at best, I see these connections as a series of tunnels. Over the years the passages get smooth and deep. Some are virtual subways, others just rabbit holes.
For people who know Christ, the picture is more vivid. Some of the passageways open on another place altogether, another world. Our minds contain tunnels like a Narnian wardrobe, paths that pass between kingdoms. In an ultimately mysterious way, previously untrained synapses fire when we meet Jesus, and we begin to encounter a reality that is unseen but harder, sharper, weightier, than anything our eyes perceive. God carves corridors through our minds that lead into his territory. “Behold,” says Jesus, “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
How does this happen? How is a physiological trail created that leads to an unseen country? The answer, I think, would overshadow the question, and tell us something about heaven itself—a place where “spiritual” bodies will live eternally. This answer, I'm guessing, is one we’re not capable of comprehending. Not yet.
In the meantime I’m thinking, with a concerned expression, that some of my mental tunnels are probably an inch wide—and these would be the currents of thought and experience that I slip into so readily that I do it without thinking. They’re so big and drafty they exert their own gravity. And some of them go ugly places.
I want to redirect the darker tunnels or destroy them completely, and do it last year. So I understand the panicky demand for seven-step programs often accompanies a desire for change. What should I do?! Give me a list! Give me answers NOW. When we see ourselves clearly, the self-knowledge can make us like Saint Augustine: I placed myself behind myself all the time. You took me from behind myself, put me in front of myself. I saw myself and was horrified.
Horror wants rapid change. And this is good.
God, however, seems to view change more like growing a tree from seed than like major surgery. He’s isn’t carefree about my dysfunction, but he’s certainly not in panic mode. He knows that spiritual formation doesn’t happen over the weekend, but over years. He planned it that way. That's why his approach to our mismanaged minds looks, to some, lackadaisical.
As usual, God sees it differently: “A lack of spiritual preparation on your part doesn’t necessarily mean an emergency on my part,” he says with a grin. Make no mistake: God will change his children. He is changing us. But he won’t rush.
What happens sometimes is that God takes the awful physiological halls in our mind and diverts them. We want a brand new mental map. But God usually opts to take what's there and steadily transform it. Maybe this is because our designer sicknesses often reflect the goodness we were meant to display—the glory we were intended to reflect.
Can I speed the rewiring process up? Could I choose a promising patch of invisible mental terrain, and start to auger away? I guess I could. But I realize, with a sinking feeling, that this digging process is what has been known for centuries as "the spiritual disciplines." Discipline. The results may be glorious but the sweat is not what society calls sexy.
Just the same, I know the kingdom is worth my exertion. So I'll do what I can, and learn to see the invisible, as I wait for God to change my mind.
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Kingdoms of the Mind
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4 comments:
I log on to BSL for my schooling in evocative evangelical blogging (plus a healthy sidebar of KU hoops and baby precocity), and I saw the book "Telling the Truth" by our old WJI friend/instructor, Marvin Olasky.
So, I think, does Arie ever open up the media to his thoughtful critique? Or is there a category of media-related writing? I know you've still got a journalist's bone in there somewhere.
//David L.
I can totally picture the game - Sim Mind - and the Sims Demand Change. You could spend money and time building a new Religious Sub-Division complete with Religious Power Plant, Wires crisscrossing all your new tunnels, Water Works, maybe even a park or two. Or, you could call in the wrecking ball to those current tunnels you have and blow them up to make may for a new, more religiously tuned, set of tunnels. Personally, I'd take a Godzilla, a couple of Earthquakes, and maybe a hurricane or two to my tunnels - and then not call out the fire department so that the conflagration could wipe them all out and leave me with nothing but charred remains of completely useless tunnels.
Or is that too much visualization for one day?
Hey David, good question. I actually do think about posting on current events and media from time to time. Journalistic writing still holds some appeal.
What tends to deter me from doing so is the amount of time I'd need to put in fact-checking, accumulating quotes, citing sources - doing what it takes, in other words, to avoid becoming another ranting, jerky-kneed "pundit" of which there are so many.
Not a great excuse, but there it is. Because I'm immersed in theology these days, I can write a "spirituality" post without a lot of preparation. I'm already thinking about it, so it flows. If you know what I mean.
Having said that, I've done a few non-typical posts on current events...the tags you'd want to check would be Controversy and Science. Ever since Fun with Evolution, I've been meaning to do another Evolution post.
As to more legit "media" reporting...I do think about it from time to time.
Will, it's obvious I should have spent more time as a kid playing Sim City. Then again, you aren't a kid. And your knowledge of the Sim world is clearly contributing a lot to your spiritual formation. OK, I'm heading over to Ebay right now...
I fear that my comments really stretch my limits of my Sim City knowledge. Ever since I lost those cheat codes, Sim City just hasn't been as much fun. I do know that if you type in the word, "Damn", it supposedly changes all the buildings in your Sim City into churches - which might be great for your spirituality, but really wreaks havoc on your tax base ;)
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