I
recently finished an extraordinary book entitled How Emotions Are Made,
by neuropsychologist Lisa Feldman Barrett.
The book explains how concepts formed by personal experience and culture
are stored, tested and modified in the human brain, and how those concepts, not
neurological “hard-wiring”, create our emotions.
The
book also draws the distinction between the human brain as an organ – as a supercomputer,
if you will – and the human mind. The brain is truly amazing. But my experience is that the mind can access
love, wisdom, strength, and courage which can guide us in situations beyond our
ken and which are not explainable by the cells and synapses, and the concepts
and knowledge stored, much unconsciously, in the brain. That experience is enough evidence for me of
the presence of that of God in every person; of the Holy Spirit available to
every person whenever we call upon it; if we will only call upon it.
That
Spirit is, to me, what answers when I ask, “What of God can I bring to this
moment?”
What
of the life, the love, and the loaf given to me am I willing to share with others?
