The brain is fallible
Because the brain is fallible and because it operates on a limited amount of information we cannot fully rely on it to help us with our present situations or our future. As awesome as our brain is, it can only solve problems based on past experiences and sometimes those outcomes do not serve our higher self or our best interests.
We must depend on our higher self and our faith to help us determine what serves us best. Our brain was created to be a neutral natural vessel to manifest our faith and our inner man in this world. Our brain will not tell us what is really real, it will only tell us what it thinks is real based on the data it has received from past experiences, or new data we send it.
Many examples of these are shown in a TV program called “Brain Games.†This show shows us how our brain will react and calculate and solve problems with limited information based on past results. If I ask you two questions; how many three cent stamps are in a dozen and if you were running a race and passed the second place runner, what place are you in.
If you answered four and in first place, you answered like most of us. In truth there are twelve stamps in a dozen and you would be in second place if you passed the one that was in second. The reason we fail at these answers, is because our brain wants to solve problems and neither one of these questions really asked a problem to be solved.
When I was in the cleaning industry I learned that the brain shuts off smells that we smell every day. I had a great product that was made from orange peelings. It was a concentrate and was very expensive. Every time I hired a new employee they loved the fragrance. After a couple of weeks they couldn’t smell it. They would always add more product to their cleaning.
I would train them and tell them to use a measuring cup and not go by their senses. They would tell me they added more because they couldn’t smell it. They couldn’t smell it because their brain shut them off from “the odor.†Because they couldn’t smell it they thought it wasn’t working. Our faith is like our measuring cup, it tells us what is real. We walk by faith not by our five senses, smell, sight, touch, hearing and taste.
Pig farmers can’t smell the pigs any more. Chicken farmers can’t smell the chickens anymore. A mechanic can’t smell the grease any more. This is away our brain protects us from the foul odors we have to smell every day. Unfortunately that means we can’t smell our own perfume any more.
People with pets can’t smell the odor in their homes. Cigarette smokers can’t smell the smoke on their clothing.
I used to work in retail and we sold cigarettes. I am not proud of that. As a disclaimer I smoked for about three years, I am not proud of that. When I sold cigarettes, it was much cheaper to buy a carton of cigarettes, ten packs verses one pack at a time. I would ask my customers “why don’t you buy a carton and save you moneyâ€; they would always say “I am quitting and hope this is my last pack.â€
The brain does not want the pain of “cold turkey†and will always tell you “we will quit tomorrow.†The brain and our senses cannot be trusted. Our faith can be. “We walk by faith not by our natural senses.â€
One last example. I vacuumed carpet a lot when I first started a cleaning company. I started to vacuum with my left arm, to save wear and tear on my right arm. When I vacuumed with my left arm my brain tried to tell me the carpet was not getting cleaned. Silly brain, the vacuum was cleaning the carpet, not my right or left arm.
Because of this deficit we need to change our story. The apostle Paul said we need to “renew our minds.†The apostle James said we need to “wash our minds with the word of truth that will save our minds.†We don’t need to “just change†we need to be transformed, and we can do just that.
I heard Iyanla Vanzant say to a widow for her to change her story. Oprah asked “how can she change her story, when that is her story and those are the facts. The facts were, she lost her young husband seven years before.
Her story that she told was that she was mad at God for taking her husband. Her story was that he was such an awesome guy that she would never find another man like him. Her story was that she loved him so much and knew she could never replace him.
She was alone and depressed after all these seven years. Iyanla said ‘Change your story!†“To what?†Oprah asked. Iyanla said “change it to, how grateful I am to have known such a wonderful man. How grateful I am to God that He gave him to me. And even though there was a tragedy that I lost him, he would want me to be happy and meet and love another.â€
She thought he could never be replaced. And she is right, people are irreplaceable. That being said her story needed to be changed to, my husband would want me to be happy and move on. He is in the clouds and as the apostle Paul would say “he is in the balcony in the sky rooting us on, so great a cloud of witnesses.â€
People say that “everyone can be replaced†I say “not so!†That is a motivational myth. Positions can be replaced, but not people. We are all unique and irreplaceable. To this widow, she needed to change her story and live her life to its fullness.
Our brain is stuck in the past. It was not created to project the present or the future only the past. Only the past results. The past patterns. We need to have a pattern break. We need to follow our destiny and our faith guided by our inner man and our destiny.
It has been said, “do what you have always done and you will get what you always gotten.†“Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.†“Change your thinking, change your world.†“Same old thinking same old results.â€
Why? Why do we need to change? I think it is because, while we were children we were connected to The Divine. We were conscience of His presence. Jesus said “come as a child†or “faith as a child.†I think when we were a child we were connected to our inner man, our destiny, our bent, our creator. As we grew older we were separated from The Vine and tried to conform to the world.
When I say The World, I do not mean The Universe or God. I mean to those around us, people. I mean we try to live up-to our parents or mentors or caregivers. We try to conform to the world and not to our own bent. Â We try and live to their standards for us, even if they were given to us by good intenders.
Only we can follow our path. We alone must find our own destiny and our own path. No one can do it for us. God has no grandchildren, only children. We cannot enter our path and destiny by holding on to someone else’s apron strings. We must find our own way.
Jesus said “unless a corn of wheat falls to the ground and dies it cannot bear fruit.†I think we were connected to The Vine. I think as children we were connected to The Invisible One and then we fell to the earth and died. Then we bore fruit. Fruit of ego and self. We were in conflict with our true nature and calling. And now we need to separate from that stock and fall into the ground and die to ego. Then we can bare the Fruit of the Spirit.
Our brain and ego cannot be trusted. Our faith and our inner man can be. We walk by faith and not by our senses.