Habits in our Brains

In one of those rabbit trails so typical of internet surfing, where you begin at Pinterest or Facebook and end an hour later who knows where, I recently ran across a very interesting and convicting article about forming habits of reading Scripture.  I'm not reposting the link because I didn't agree with everything they said, but all truth is God's truth, and this one idea has stuck in my head for some time now, so I decided to share.

This blogger described our efforts to study Scripture as "a battle within our brains," and this is what she said:

"In this information age when messages, images, and information are coming at us almost faster than we can receive them, our brains are creating new neural pathways to accommodate the input. The first time we see an image on a screen (we’re not talking about pornography here, although it does apply) – like a blog page, a news feed, texts, or facebook – our brain creates a new neural pathway to process that image. It is the same with new sounds or any stimuli to the senses, but let’s use the visual image for this discussion.

"Input always travels the path of least resistance. So the second time we see the new image, it will travel the same route. And before long, the new neural pathway has been stimulated enough to “desire” of itself continued activation. A habit is born.

"After that, when the brain is not currently occupied, we long for that image. That is why we constantly check our phones or email. That is why, when we have a free moment, we click onto a favorite blog, check facebook, and tweets, or any other source of input we frequent. Without realizing it, we have begun to crave these places of input, hunger for them, to the point where they can surreptitiously dominate our time."

Wow.  How often do we all (myself included!) do this?  We have a spare minute, we're waiting for something or someone, we're putting off homework or we're about to go to bed and we begin the "Bermuda Triangle" of unproductivity: email, facebook, twitter, pinterest, facebook, blogs, email, twitter.... it goes on and on.

Basically, she goes on to say, we must rewire our brains to desire Scripture instead:

"We must expose our brains repeatedly to the image or sound of God’s words. Printed, glowing on the page, read aloud, or discussed with friends.  Satan knows the physiology of the brain. He knows if he can encourage overstimulation through an overload of mundane or technical information, he can increase the odds that we will not seek more spiritual sources for input, thus making scripture study tedious.

"Recent studies have also shown that when our minds are over-stimulated, we begin to make decisions without considering the consequences. Much of the time, these quick decisions are not the best ones for us. An abundance of “information” prompts reactionary responses and elevates feelings of anxiety. All of this distracts us from the peace the Lord offers through His Word."

Ouch.  All that time we spend distracted, constantly checking back to make sure we haven't missed something, and more often than not becoming jealous of something someone else has... it's letting Satan get the better of our attention.  AND it makes us more anxious!  C.S. Lewis's book The Screwtape Letters also points out this condition, as Screwtape instructs his demon apprentice in how to distract his human subject from a relationship with God:

 "...you will find that anything or nothing is sufficient to attract his wandering attention.  You no longer need a good book, which he really likes, to keep him from his prayers or his work or his sleep; a column of advertisements in yesterday's paper will do.  You can make him waste his time not only in conversations he enjoys with people whom he likes, but in conversations with those he cares nothing about on subjects that bore him. You can make him do nothing at all for long periods... Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick."

Now, this is not to say that the internet is evil or you are not a Christian if you have Pinterest or Twitter.  That's not it at all.  I'm not going to deactivate my Facebook because of this article.  But it has challenged me to compare the amount of time I spend on the internet to the time I spend reading, thinking about or sharing God's Word.  (I am preaching to myself here more than anyone.) 

What if we replaced the majority of that internet time with reading Scripture? What if instead of waking up and immediately checking our phones and facebook accounts, we gave the first minutes of our day to God?  What if we even spent those little snippets of time between classes, before work, during lunch or at bedtime working on memorizing Scripture?  It only takes a few minutes here and there and goodness knows I don't do it enough.  What if we accepted the challenge to slowly but surely replace that almost involuntary need for media input with a desire for God's word, and made time to truly study it and spend time with Him, rather than quickly check it off our morning routine? 

Like I said, this is as much directed at me as anyone else.  I read this article weeks ago and though it's been in the back of my mind for awhile, I still haven't changed a thing.  I'm mostly challenging myself to do this.  But it's such a common problem in this day and time, couldn't we all use a little reminder every now and then?

"Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it."  Joshua 1:9