Some of the newest brain research that has caught my attention lately is simply revealing the reasons behind what God has told us to do for millennia. All of us who have raised children experienced a moment of frustration when we told our kids, “Because I said so!” We uttered that final word when our kids kept asking us why. Sometimes our response was a rebuke to their little rebellious hearts, but that other times we said it because we thought they wouldn’t understand our reasoning, even if we told them. Perhaps, this is a time that God has chosen to reveal some of the “whys” behind his commands. The “why” and the “how” of the brain are calling us away from cultural norms in a culture that has forsaken God and, often, plain old common sense. Let me share some of Caroline Leaf’s thoughts on our culture of busy-ness. I think it may help us.
In her book, How to Switch on Your Brain, she says, “One of the plagues of modern existence is multitasking, which leads to the further plagues of “hurry sickness” and obsessive time management. The truth about multitasking is that it is a persistent myth. What we really do is shift our attention rapidly from task to task, resulting in two bad things: (1) We don’t devote as much focused attention as we should to a specific activity, task, or piece of information, and (2) we sacrifice the quality of our attention. I call this milkshake-multitasking.
This poor focusing of attention and lack of quality in our thought lives is the complete opposite of how the brain is designed to function and causes a level of brain damage. Every rapid, incomplete, and poor quality shift of thought is like making a milkshake with your brain cells and neurochemicals. This milkshake-multitasking, which is the truth behind multitasking, creates patterns of flightiness and lack of concentration that are unfortunately often erroneously labeled ADD and ADHD and that are too often unnecessarily medicated, adding fuel to the fire. And it’s a rapid downhill slide from there if we don’t get back to our God-design of deep, intellectual attention.
What does deep, focused, intellectual attention look like versus milkshake-multitasking? The answer is modeled in Proverbs 4:20-23. ‘Dear friend, listen well to my words; tune your ears to my voice. Keep my message in plain view at all times. Concentrate! Learn it by heart! Those who discover these words live; really live; body and soul, they are bursting with health. Keep vigilant watch over your heart; that’s where life starts’ (The Message).”
Leaf goes on to talk about parts of the brain that decline, which are centers of the brain for health, peace and happiness, if we do spend focused time thinking about deep things – God, life, values, and spend time in prayer as well as healthy introspection. To fail to take bring all thoughts into captivity in Jesus keeps us from achieving the physical, mental, and emotional health for which God has designed us. We are made in God’s image and God is a deep thinker. We need to be as well. When we live on sound bites and spend hours each day scrolling through Facebook or Twitter, we not only become shallow people but unhealthy people – literally.
I remember a line from a book I once read by a Christian author. I don’t remember the book or the author but I remember the line. He said something to the effect that the world does not need more talented people, more gifted people, or more driven people. The world needs deeper people. I agree with him and I believe the same thing can be said of the kingdom of God.
To quote Leaf one more time, she says, “We are told by so-called social media experts that information needs to be in bite-size amounts and in a constant stream of new information before the previous information has even been digested. This is not stimulation; it is bombardment…It is all about balance. Our brain responds with healthy patterns, circuits, and neurochemicals when we think deeply, but not when we skim only the surface of multiple pieces of information…According to the Archives of General Psychiatry, simultaneous exposure to electronic media during the teenage years – such as playing a computer game while watching television – appears to be associated with increased depression and anxiety in young adulthood, especially among men.” She goes on to quote a number of other studies connecting multitasking, fragmented thinking, and a life of sound bites with numerous health and psychiatric issues.
Our Father tells us to be still and know that he is God. Scripture calls us to meditate on his word day and night. He tells us to store up his word up in our hearts (memorize) and to talk about his word when we are on the road. He tells us to choose what we think about and think about godly things on a continual, focused basis. In other words, we need to buck the cultural trend of more is better and believe the biblical injunction that deeper is better. The world says to go faster. God says to go slower. The world says look for more stimulation. God says look for him.
If you, like me, tend to find yourself with less and less quiet time in your life and if you, like me, tend to get hijacked by the busy-ness around us, we need to fight back and we need to keep our children from succumbing to a world of sound bites and information addiction. It goes against out design, our health – both emotional and physical, and against the Word of God. Very often, a believer in Christ must be counter-cultural to be obedient. God has told us for thousands of years what to do to be healthy, peaceful and productive. Now he is showing us why.
