I continue to be fascinated with how modern neurobiology shines the light on what God has been working to do in human beings all along. We often think more Bible study or better preaching will “fix” our struggles. The Bible and preaching are important and God-ordained things! But you can’t fix right brain problems with left brain tools.

Remember that the Bible was only printed and became available to people at large in the last few hundred years. In the first couple centuries after Jesus the gospel spread to the then-known world with no Bibles or Bible app, no church buildings, no Christian TV or books or seminaries, no religious institutions. Yet in the western protestant contemporary church many have come to rely on Bible study as the primary tool for discipleship.

But as important as Bible teaching is, when Scripture is used primarily for information it does precious little to transform us into the likeness of Jesus. Think of your own life. Have you read or heard anything from the Bible that your life still fails to demonstrate? Are you still afraid even though the Bible repeatedly says “fear not”? Are you living without lust even when the New Testament says “flee sexual immorality?” And how do you handle anger, or money? Do you love your enemies?

Reading that may leave you ready to give up. Or if you believe you’ve just got to try harder, how’s that working for you?

I strongly believe a core issue is that much of contemporary Christianity is trying to fix right brain problems with left brain tools. That would be like trying to paint a house with a four-inch paintbrush; you might eventually look a little better, but you’ll wear yourself out in the process.

There is a better way.

The Bible and Contemporary Neurobiology

God has had a problem with the human race (I’m using very human language to imagine God’s perspective). We’re sick, rebellious, and enslaved. The Old Testament often pictures God as an unrequited lover, pleading with His people to listen and follow. He provided them repeated and detailed instructions for living, and they continued to go their own way. Eventually the Babylonian captivity “cured” the Israelites of idolatry, but instead of coming to love God and love their neighbors, they responded with overwhelming legalism.

That’s the world Jesus entered. God’s people had all the instructions, but they either failed to take them seriously, or they tried to micromanage their own and everyone else’s lives to conform to rigid behavioral interpretations of God’s law. There was no love.

To use contemporary brain language, all the left brain intellectual propositional truths and instructions in the Old Testament hadn’t resulted in a people reflecting who God really is, or following Him.

Remember that we now understand the left brain as largely verbal, linear, and logical. The right brain is nonverbal and largely experiential and emotional. Scientists tell us that the right brain is actually the master switch of our internal system. And that explains why more information alone is ineffective in deeply changing our inner being and how we live.

That’s why trying harder doesn’t work.

Your right brain doesn’t change by getting more information. Stuffing more facts into your intellectual left brain doesn’t change your almost-unconscious emotional responses to people or stress. What changes your right brain are experiences and connection.

That’s why Jesus came as Immanuel – God With Us (Matthew 1:23).

This was not a completely new thing for God’s people. There were plenty of hints throughout the Old Testament. The tabernacle of Moses and Solomon’s temple were full of sights, sounds, smells to fill the senses. Smoking Mount Sinai, Elijah calling fire down from heaven, the rich temple rituals – all provided experiences. And that was still not enough.

Then Jesus came. When the disciples lived with Him for over three years they became different – not primarily because of the words He said, as important as they were (and are). But as the Jewish rulers recognized when they hauled Peter and John before the courts shortly after Jesus returned to heaven and berated them for healing in Jesus’ name, they were different because “they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).

I believe this is a primary reason Jesus’ paradigm for His people is the Church – not solely for spreading information, but for fostering an environment where people can experience connection with others of His people and with God Himself.

Is that what you’re experiencing – being with others and with Jesus such that you are becoming different? John longed for an environment where “you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father ad with his Son Jesus Christ”? (1 John 1:3)

And friends, grabbing a cup of coffee on your way into a church service that’s largely a platform production is not fellowship.

Right Brain Solutions

So, if left brain tools such as information are woefully inadequate to solve right brain problems, what are we to do? While the way “church” is generally done needs to change, let me offer a couple suggestions for you individually.

• Who are your friends?

I often hear “I don’t have anyone.” While others perhaps “should” reach out to you, you can’t change them. But you can do something yourself. There may well be a group you can join such as a small group from church already meeting around shared food and honest fellowship, or a Celebrate Recovery or other 12-step group. And if not, you take initiative to find a friend or to gather a couple friends together and start a group. This can begin with you.

And if you’re already around friends, are they the kind of people who are going in the same direction in life that you’d like to go? Are you deepening intimacy together, becoming more real and more like Jesus as a result of your togetherness?

• How are you being with Jesus?

How can you become more like Jesus if you are never with Him? Some don’t spend any time with Jesus at all. And some do, but it’s all left-brain information. That doesn’t work.

If any part of you longs for healing and transformation, to become like Peter and John who others noted as having been with Jesus, start spending time being with Him. Bring your whole body, your emotions, all of you into His presence. That includes both bringing Him into every part of your day and dedicated alone time with Him.

That’s a snapshot of the things you can do that will change your brain pathways, using right brain solutions for right brain problems.

May others say of you, That one has been with Jesus!

Your Turn:  What right-brain problems have you been trying to solve using left brain tools? How will you seek experiences and connection to address what the Holy Spirit wants to do in you?  Leave a comment below.

Want More? This week’s podcast is our wonderful monthly feature where I talk with Zion and Avery Montgomery, this time about right brain and left brain in spiritual formation. Listen or watch.

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• Trying to solve right brain problems with left brain tools quickly becomes frustrating and ineffective. We need right brain solutions for right brain problems. That means experiences and connection.  Tweet that.

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