Listen to this post NOW on Beyond Everything Radio!

Today we conclude our examination of the internal processes which produce our behaviors. We’ve been following the framework (pictured below) which comes from my book from 2015 entitled: “Getting Better When You Can’t”.

When we say we want to make a change, what we mean is that we want to change our behaviors. If our actions reveal that we are addicted or acting compulsively or impulsively, then our tendency is to focus almost exclusively on “NOT DOING” it. I’ve said how we fail at lasting change not despite our best efforts, but because of them. The nuance is that we can’t really change things our own way, and that discovery allows us to perceive the path to transformation.

“And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” (Matt 6:27)

Today, I’ll discuss brain science and why it’s insufficient. Then I’ll use an example to reveal nothing is better than Jesus’ unconventional wisdom.

Brain Science is a multi-disciplinary belief system, which includes studies on human behavior, brain biology, psychology, and other theories. Brain science is the life hack that ignores a discovery of God and seeks to remove any moral culpability from our behaviors. If that’s true, then on what basis have we concluded we even have a problem? Brain science believes it can help you with addiction without claiming it’s wrong. It does so by renaming you a victim.

Neuroplasticity refers to our brains ability to adapt to the stimuli we give it. Neuroplasticity is real, but it’s the reaction to stimuli, not the cause. I mention this because many “brain science” life hacks treat behaviors as if they are neurotransmitter problems. Doing so creates a cascade of interventions that don’t lead to the changes we seek.

Nearly all addictions, compulsions, and impulses are the downstream effect of our brain rewiring itself to adapt to our choices. The most common neurotransmitter is the dopamine pathway. For example, when we scroll on our phone, we pass over a lot of noise until we get a “hit.” Then our brain produces dopamine which makes us feel good and excites us. Scrolling produces more stimuli, our brains then rewire themselves (neuroplasticity) and grow new dopamine receptors to accommodate the additional flood of dopamine. This results in the brain having more dopamine receptors than needed, which signals the brain to get more. It’s literally how every addict becomes addicted to everything.

Our behaviors become hard wired via our brain chemistry. Knowing this helps us become aware of some pitfalls in the addiction theory.

Homeostasis is the process in our body that tries to level out the chemicals being released and compensates the dopamine by releasing or even blocking other chemicals like norepinephrine and serotonin. So now when we stop scrolling, we don’t just get bored, we become anxious, depressed, or agitated.

Now we can see why psychology has latched onto this. Psychotropic medications (big Pharma) alter our brain and how we feel. The theory uses medications to help people re-train their brains over time. This can work, but it seldom addresses how our brains got there in the first place. If you are on a prescription medication, never change or stop your therapy without your doctor’s supervision. This can really upset the balance of chemicals in your brain and cause life threatening situations.

The weakness in the brain science approach is that it reduces humanity to biochemistry. It claims we are victims, and that it’s not our fault.

I’m proposing that transformation isn’t primarily biological. Yes, biochemistry is involved, but it’s subordinate to the intellect (kardia –inner self). If poor thinking produced bad biochemistry, then we can unthink our way into good biochemistry. This biblical framework (Mark 7:15-23, James 1:14-15) has healed many (including myself) from anxiety, depression, and many addictions. The strategy is to access (spiritually) our deficient grasp of Reality which drives deficient thinking. This is a learned skill, it is the very definition and experience of insight. Our problem are not a neurotransmitter problems, but truth problems.

Our lives today are mostly reflections of how we thought yesterday.

Since you want to change an action that is likely linked to a dopamine overload, you must know that your healing will involve a dopamine withdrawal. This means you may need to feel bad for a while. You may need the help of a professional if it’s severe. Feeling bad is the beginning of your freedom.

“It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting…” (Ecclesiastes 7:2)

“For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.” (2 Corinthians 7:10)

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (Psalm 51:17)

Lean into the sober mindedness and the solace of feeling bad. God is there with you. Christ is our example of human suffering and He reveals the pathway is down, decline, death, and then renewal and new life. Our transformation follow’s the same Christoform pattern. This Christology is Truth which is big enough to reset (heal) our “thinking.” Embracing our suffering frees us from avoiding it (in bad thinking). Then, a new set of affections is born.

Jesus, Online shopping, the Food Network, and Porn

Each of these activities contain the exact same amount of sinful culpability, but our blind culture refuses to accept Jesus’ clear teaching that “nothing on the outside of you can defile you.” A social media scroller, a person who scours Amazon, Facebook marketplace, Zillow, Bring-A-Trailer, Food Network or Pornhub each share the same biochemical addiction.

There is nothing inherently wrong or sinful with looking at recipes, finding deals on houses or cars, or with the naked body. This is really hard to grasp at first until we see the wisdom of Jesus’ teaching. In each case, the “scroller” (blepo-Greek word for looking with intent) is “seeking” not realizing they are already pregnant with desire. Each passes over countless offerings that don’t conceive within the heart (inner self) of the seeker…until they find it. Each then pauses…looks closer…gets the details…and imagines another life. Desire changes immediately to (epithumia-over desire, lust). The enticed mind then “thinks” or places its attention on how this particular recipe, deal, or image could satisfy us. Deception is “thinking” this particular “object/idol” can overwrite what we know to be true about our budget, our reality, our relationships, our faith, and the will is activated to find a way to have it.

Maybe we can walk away (this time), but we’ll walk away pregnant. If left to ourselves, we the baby is coming as soon as possible, (the hook is set). Each over-desires is a child that hits us differently. The only cure is what Puritans called “mortification” or the killing of sin. This is done by upholding and trusting in the Truth. So long as we believe what isn’t true, we’ll remain pregnant and birthing sin and death in our lives. By loving the truth, (re-thinking/metanoia-repenting)our over-desire fades into a normal healthy unsinful (non death producing) desire. Our thinking leads to death. Contemplation frees our thinking mind and affections.

A contemplative mind sounds like this: “That looks like a great deal, but it’s outside our present budget.””That recipe looks so good, but we made a commitment not to eat stuff like that.” “That’s a beautiful woman, but she’s not the woman entrusted to me.” These reset our mind from thinking back into relating to the Truth, from objective transaction back to subjective transformation. Once we acknowledge the Truth, we must face it, receive it, focus on it, trust it. Only then will our affection for what is right, displace our affection for what is wrong.

Of course, we know it’s not always so easy. We can either mortify or give birth to sin. God’s grace often allows something insightful to happens by way of sin. Like Adam and Eve, our eyes are opened, knowing good and evil. Sometimes seeing ourselves on the side of evil creates intense psychological dissonance, making us want to hide in shame and guilt. Don’t.

Some sins bring unavoidable consequences and we must face them. Others have consequences we can hide for a lifetime under our fig leaves. My suggestion is, in this moment of awareness, before our hiding sets in, own it completely before God. Recognize what we are capable of and ask for God’s help. Cling to scriptures like 1 John 1:8-9:

“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

In this moment we will begin to truly trust whether we really believe this is true (applies) for us. If we do, we’ll feel it immediately, and our desire for change and transformation will be stronger than ever. Isn’t this always how it is? And that means we can see the truth more than ever, and our affections, will, and actions will follow over time, as they bring forth a new kind of life.