Sunday, October 2, 2022

The Believing Brain vs. the Non-believing Brain

 There are two confessions before I delve into today's message.  First, please forgive me if this goes longer than a normal story.  Once again, my index finger has been carrying my message-writing load for the last ten days.  Now that the other nine fingers are free spirits, they are dancing like dogs who have been cooped up indoors similar to those pets in the Florida area who have been restrained due to one of Mother Nature's terrible rants.  If you can picture these dogs running outside for the first time, you have an idea how my fingers are feeling this morning while composing on my MacBook Pro.

The second confession has to do with my own unleashing of emotions last night at the end of my vacation to Montana.  As much as I love travel, the trip home pushed me beyond my comfort zone.  As thorough as we are making sure we leave nothing behind, my wife told me she may have left "Jesus Calling" between the sheets.  It's a book she reads daily during her morning meditation.  She loved the message so much that she left it on the bed for me to read.  I didn't see it.  The book was a birthday present to me from our daughter and we suspect it was left behind.  Strike one.  

Next, we encountered a delay as soon as we pulled out of our gate in Montana.  Our connecting city, Denver, was dealing with bad weather forcing all flights to be delayed by an hour.  We sat on the tarmac for over an hour without much air conditioning.  Strike two.  

Once we finally did land my wife told me she was famished and had to eat.  That wouldn't have been a problem if the airport hadn't changed gates three times, especially when I was holding a vanilla shake in one hand while hauling a fifty pound suitcase in the other doing my OJ Simpson maneuvers amidst a crowd that was yelling and swearing trying to get to their gate.  The entire airport was in disarray.  This wasn't quite a strike because my burger and fries were heavenly and we had just enough time to eat prior to boarding once we found our new gate assignment.

Sure enough, there was another delay on the tarmac due to all the chaos of the day and missing pilots for our plane.  Once again, we sat on the tarmac with not much air flow.  Not a strike but several pitches were fouled off while I was quietly meditating.  The ride home was bumpy and I really needed to use the bathroom at the back of the plane but the captain kept the fasten seat belt sign on so long that my bladder nearly burst.  I looked over at my wife who was in a deep slumber and felt a hint of jealousy creeping inside my head.

I couldn't wait to get home as midnight was fast approaching.  My wife volunteered to park my Ford Escape ten days prior while I checked in our bags.  We were all the way to the edge of E lot which we called the "E Ticket" ride to remember where the vehicle was parked upon our return.  I touched the remote.  No response.  This was the moment my wife discovered the lights don't shut off automatically.  Strike 3!  The F bombs were dropping out the sky.  Let's just say that by the time we got to sleep it was 2am.

Okay, confession time is over.  Let's take a look at today's topic, "The Believing Brain vs. the Non-believing Brain."  There is no judging in today's story.  You either have one type of brain or the other.  You have your reasons for why you believe or don't believe.  I'm only examining the situation.  If you have a believing brain, I'm curious about how you came to believe.  Please share this the next time we have time together.  If you're the non-believing type, I'm curious about that too.  That conversation we have together may be a bit deeper since your type of brain appears complicated to me.  Again, I'm not judging.  I'm only curious.  I have been having many conversations with owners of the non-believing brains lately and all I can say is I'm genuinely curious about your brain type.  There is a warning here.  If we spend enough time together we may discover that a non-believing brain can become a believing brain.  Okay, my rant for today is over.  It's time to go to my house of worship and light a candle for all the brain types in the world who are suffering.  Have a great day.

No comments: