Treasure Revealed

Had a breakthrough on the forgiveness thing (original post). Many aspects of life suddenly have become amazingly easier. I'm also finding shorter pathways to kicking out demons when they try to come.

The person I forgave was an important influence in my childhood so with this new-found forgiveness has come this HUGE treasure chest overflowing with old memories that can now come back to me in a non-destructive form. I'd thought no good memories could ever come of my thinking back on that relationship, but now they're coming in droves! Songs and the words of some prayers and hymns start coming to my mind just about as soon as I start praying -- things I'd forgotten or suppressed for years. The memories emerge with this glow of love about them because the forgiveness I found for this person grew out of a new love for them through the Lord.

It's as though I'd been blinded to the good parts of experiences in that relationship before I could forgive the person, but now I see them -- they were there all along, of course, just my capacity to enjoy (or even perceive!) them had been squelched by the venomous evil with which that relationship was tainted. But there were good parts, and my mind is starting to shut down old pathways and start digging new troughs through which my thoughts can flow.

Heretofore, I'd only been able to remember the bad parts of the relationship and I know that, in order for my thought processes to change, there had to be something to replace the old pathways: a shunt to a new way of thinking. The catch with trying to change your thinking in this way is that the new thought absolutely must be more appealing to think of than the old one; no matter how hard I've tried, I've never been able to push thoughts down another path from behind but always have had to coax them out gently and lead them with a treat, as if holding a carrot in front of a tortoise on which I'm riding (or just holding a big piece of cake in front of myself; perhaps that's the better analogy).

Then good ol' GABA goes to work. Sy Rogers acutally impressed the heck out of me during a talk he gave by starting on about thought patterns and using the full name of this neurochemical: gamma-aminobutyric acid. If I recall correctly, it's GABA in the brain that suppresses the firing of neural pathways (I think glutamine is the corresponding antagonist molecule that stimulates neurotransmission, but I'm too lazy to look it up at the moment). So I would contend that not only do you need to shut down the old pathways but actively seek out new pathways down which the thoughts can flow and to make these the paths of least resistance (or greatest reward) to think about, so props to glutamine as well.

At any rate, just recall Luke 1:37 (ESV):

37 For nothing will be impossible with God.

That word nothing, traced to a Greek word, I believe, has to do with the freshly-spoken word. I'm still trying to tune in to God's freshly spoken words, but I think I'm making some headway there.

Praise God -- from whom all blessings flow!


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