"You have heard it said do not worry about tomorrow." Jesus was giving more than practical wisdom. He may have been referencing neuroscience in this text.

Matthew 6:34New American Standard Bible (NASB)

34 “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will [a]care for itself. [b]Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

This short pithy statement by Jesus is much easier read than done.  I would like to suggest that not only was Jesus providing tremendous practical wisdom that leads to better health and happiness, he may also have been referencing the way our brains function.

fMRI scans

These are exciting times in the area of brain research and neuroscience.  We are living in a time where technology and initiative have converged to provide amazing insight into brain architecture, function, and network.  The Bush Administration declared the 90s as the decade of the brain.  Over the last three decades, brain imaging (fMRI) has provided pictures for the first time of the human brain in action.  For the first time in human history, we are able to see brain function.  As a result, we are experiencing a paradigm shift as it relates to brain function that reverses centuries of established science.  One of the most significant paradigm shifts as it relates to human intellect and brain growth is the idea that the human brain changes.  It was only over the past three decades that we have discovered that our brains are constantly in the process of establishing new neural networks (changing).  Put differently, our brains consist of 80 to100 billion neurons.  Many of them are talking to each other in a network with about half a quadrillion connections, called synapses.  This fast paced network is constantly changing and expanding.  There is one expression in the field of neuroscience that succinctly describes the way our brains change, “Neurons that fire together wire together.”  

This factual statement provides greater insight into the learning process.  While high tech imaging has provided empirical data to verify this science, as educators, parents, and coaches we have known this to be the case long before fMRI imaging.                                

Neuron

When we teach a new concept to our children, we are essentially getting neurons in their brain that have not talked to each other to establish at first a handshake.  The biological explanation of this handshake is called a synapse.  Each neuron has about 100,000 branch-like dendrites that are pre-programed to receive and establish approximately 200,000 connections with other neuron dendrites.  When these dendrites connect, there is a sharing of information through a chemical process.  They have a great deal of help from glial cells that support these connections.  Over time with greater frequency, this neuronal handshake becomes a connected conversation with a fiber optic like sheath that surrounds the neuron connections called myelin.  The more myelin that insulates that connection the faster information is able to travel through the neuron network and path.  Put in layman’s terms, the more a person practices the piano the more they are creating stronger neuron connections that are likely to survive the periodic neuron pruning that takes place over the course of a

person’s life. Neuron pruning is the brain's way of "emptying the garbage" so to speak.  It prunes back to promote greater brain growth. Tip to parents, the first neuron pruning stage occurs after about age 2 and then again around age 10 or 11.  

Use this time frame to your advantage and start helping your children make those connections from ages 2-11 whether it is swinging a golf club, bat, learning a second language, or playing the piano.  Give them time to practice and the likelihood of that particular knowledge or sill surviving the second neuron pruning stage is good.  You may wonder why the brain undergoes these pruning episodes?  The neurologists tell us it is because our brains are extremely efficient.  There is no need to maintain a network that is not well established.  This would take away from brainpower in other brain networks that are already well grooved in our brains.   

I suspect I should stop and provide the following disclaimer: “I barely passed Biology, Chemistry, and Physics in high school.”  

There are always holes in the way
our brains weave memories.

Back to the main topic of this essay, “Don’t worry about tomorrow because tomorrow has enough worries of its own.” I would like to filter Jesus’ practical advice through the lens of neuroscience.  Harvard professor Daniel Gilbert and author of the best selling book Stumbling on Happiness, reveals that our brains are not a high-powered computer with a super fast processor.  In fact, the metaphor of a computer in describing our brain and brain function leads to a lot of misinformation.  While there are some terms that are cross functional i.e. “network,” our brain is unable to capture or record life events like your family’s DVR hard drive.  It would be great if our minds were able to record every single bit of information, especially, when I am having a disagreement with my wife on how we both remember a particular conversation.  If only I could hit the play button and have my brain recall every single piece of information.  However, as I mentioned, our brains are very efficient and only store threads of information not the entire file so to speak.  We just don’t have that much storage if that were the case.  When it is time to retrieve or recall a memory or previous conversation our brains retrieve threads of that event and weaves it into a mosaic that is our memory.  Keep in mind, there are holes in our memory because our brains are doing the best it can to re-create that memory.  This is where mis-remembering comes into play and is the cause of marriage spats since the beginning of time.  We all tend to remember differently. 

 

Summarizing Gilbert’s book, he provides three axioms to keep in mind (no pun intended) when thinking about how our minds function.  1.  We almost always mis-remember the past.  2.  We almost always mis-interpret the present. 3.  We almost always mis-imagine the future.  Just by keeping these three axioms in mind, you may have less relationship stress and drama, especially, if we are able to admit that these three axioms occur in both the sender and the receiver in a conversation. 

This should help illustrate the veracity of these three axioms.  How many times on Thanksgiving Day have you eaten yourself into glutton stage?  Then you find yourself in a recliner watching the Cowboys lose again.  As you are dozing off, the thought crosses your mind, “I have eaten myself sick.  I think I may not eat again until tomorrow!” After the game at around dinnertime, where do you find yourself? Yep, loading up another plate.  This illustrates the ways we often mis-imagine the future. Since our body was telling us that we are full any imagination of eating again was not reasonable. Gilbert explains that our brains have limited resources to pull from when it comes to imagining the future.  In fact, our brains have the “stuff” of now to try and weave together or imagine a picture of the future.  In essence, our brains are limited with the “stuff” of today in attempting to imagine what decades down the road would be like.  If you don’t believe me just visit Disney’s Tomorrow Land.  This was Walt’s brainchild in the 1950s of giving his guests a picture of what the future would look like and, yet, what you see is the 1950s with a twist.  Notice there are no personal computers, satellite technology, cell phones that are capable of taking pictures, human cloning, etc…  The reason Walt was unable to depict the 21^st Century is because as creative as he was, his brain only had the “stuff” of the 1950s by which to draw from to weave a picture of Tomorrow Land. 

In a more practical way, the principle of, “We often mis-imagine the future” is a good reason married couples should not make decisions to divorce while going through relationship crises.  We see this all the time.  The unhappy spouse begins reflecting over the past 10 years of marriage that were mediocre at best.  And then when trying to imagine another 10 years in the same relationship, the brain only has the “stuff” of here and now, and the spouse imagines another 10 years of mediocrity.  The moral of this story is that the future we imagine today rarely turns out the way we think good or bad.  In fact, more often than not it is completely different and mind baffling since our brains lack the stuff to weave an accurate picture.  And best of all, it is almost always better than we initially imagined.

For the sake of time, I will only focus on the latter brain axiom of “mis-imagining the future.”  Could it be that Jesus was speaking neurologically when he tells us not to use the stuff of today to worry about tomorrow?  After all, our stuff today will only paint a more depressive picture of tomorrow causing greater stress for today.  The truth of this text is not that tomorrow’s worries are so great we are unable to handle them today. Instead, our current worries would weave an imagination that would create exponentially more worrisome events than what would actually occur.  Remember, the future is more often better than what we previously imagined.  To see this principle in action again, think back to the children of Israel that were led out of Egypt.  The scholars tell us that only about half of Israel followed Moses to freedom.  The other half chose to remain in bondage in Egypt.  The reasons were very much neurological.  They were trying to imagine the future away from Egypt, but they only had the “stuff” of their today to weave their imagination.  They determined that if their “stuff” of today was so awful, then the “stuff” of tomorrow must be even worse.  We read in the text, “At least in Egypt we had food and shelter.  If we leave with Moses, we may not have those things.” (My paraphrase)  In this same event, we see principle 1 at work as well, "We often times mis-remember our past."  

There were some in the exiting community that chose to return to bondage because they had quickly forgotten how bad their existence was while enslaved.  Side note, and I don't always do a great job remembering this principle in my own disagreements, before you are quick to be so certain that your version of the past event you are discussing is 100% accurate, remember your brain has holes in its recall of previous events.  It is always better to be willing to listen to the other person's version because between the two you may get a more accurate rendering of that past event.  

Here is the application and it is not brand new information, resist the temptation of making life changing decisions while you are currently going through a life crisis.  You may just be projecting your “stuff” of today into your future.  This could lead to a rash decision.  Disclaimer: I am not suggesting remaining in a toxic situation if God has provided a way out.  Just be aware of the brain’s tendencies.  I will focus on the other two brain axioms in another blog.