Imagining Solutions for a Better World.
Good Morning Friends,
Monday I attended a one day conference that asked questions like, “Does anyone really learn from history? How do we process knowledge? Did Adam and Eve leave the garden with their apple device? We asked questions about how we learn and the unintended consequences of handling technology badly? With nearly 500 others in a filled tent at the Ritz Carlton we took on the discussion of access, participation powerful use gaps in the deployment of technology and information in education and health systems being revolutionized before our eyes. I listened to Llewellyn Sanchez-Werner, the youngest person to ever attend Julliard. He talked about performing in Iraq and then played some amazing music on the piano for us. I heard a young boy share how he discovered and made a means of identifying early the protein that is the marker for pancreatic cancer. I heard amazing panel discussions on the future of exploration in the natural world of head hunters, underwater caves and dried up river but perhaps the most interesting to me personally was exploring the greatest challenge for science in this century… The Brain Initiative. And out of all the possible lunch partners I ended up with Paula Apsell, the Senior Executive Producer of the PBS show NOVA. Joining us was Deanna M. Barch, the Professor of Psychology, Psychiatry and Radiology at Washington University, Miyoung Chum Executive Vice President of Science Programs for the Kavil Foundation, the architect of the Brain Mapping Initiative and Ken Kosik, Executive Director of Cognitive Therapies, University of California, Santa Barbara. Kim Gandy CEO, National Network to End Domestic Violence joined us and shared the compassion that has directed her life. And Gerard Senehi, a mentalist joined us to perform sleight of hand and magic like tricks that fooled the eye to amaze us and get us to think out of the box. And that was just our table mates during lunch. That God had placed me there was no accident. Yet at the end of the day…all the presentations aside… I was not sure if I had taken a Vitamin or was in need of an Aspirin. An ocean had been poured into my brain. It would take a while to slosh around. At the end of the day I remembered a video of Black Rhinos being gentle with each other and David Attenborough mimicking a baby rhino mimicking David Attenborough. I remembered dancing with the some of those in attendance with internet phenomenon Matt Harding, who had been filmed himself dancing with people all around the world…connecting with others non-verbally. The key, he says, to getting others to join in is that you have to dance badly and not have an agenda. Here is his viral video with more than 100 million hits that helps us overcome fear of the unknown: http://whatstrending.com/2012/06/where-the-hell-matt-harding-dancing-2012/
Now this morning with a runny nose with the backdrop of scripture I am putting together some thoughts about how we connect as creatures and as Christians Imagining Solutions for a Better World.
Scripture: “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
1 Corinthians 2:16 (ESV)
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 12:2 (ESV)
Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance,
Proverbs 1:5 (ESV)
Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.
1 Corinthians 11:1 (NIV)
Message: My table mates at lunch were very intrigued that I worked as a community relationship router. I suggested to them that my challenge at the community level and theirs at the neurological perspective mirrored each other. They agreed. The task is too daunting without a focus. You see there are 86 Billion neurons in the average human brain and even in the womb an unborn child, 2 million connections a second are being made and using only the energy equivalent of a 20 watt light bulb. Compare that to a Nematode that has only 302 neurons and unlike humans they are all the same, perhaps waiting to be engineered into a bio computer for the future of engineering creating in time another conscious creature. Here is the point. At one level we sense what is going on, we see, feel, taste, smell and hear, but to make sense of it all collectively… to function properly… I think we have to realize that we are on a journey to live in response to God’s omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent love. That is what makes learning worthwhile. That is what makes music and dance a collective experience. The challenge is that all this has to be routed and placed in relationship not only in our brain but in the communities in which we live as well. We get a sense of it in the experience of compassion with mirrored neurons firing. Here we mirror behavior as in dance. It is a physical example of our shared worship experience. The problem is that some of the things we see are not really there and some things that are there we do not see at all. The hub and routes of our emotions and actions need order. The challenge is to respond with every bit of our heart, mind, soul and strength. The difficulty is that we are fragmented….we get worn out…we find it difficult to sense with the right perspective for the community in which we live. And yet as Christians we believe there is a collective wisdom from which we can draw to organize all the senses and route all those trillions of bits of information…conscious and unconscious… integrated to the glory of God.
Pray that those nexus regions of our brains where a noxious brew of repetition and fear collide be healed. Pray the same be true for the communities in which we live and work. Pray in our ability to have free will that we would choose to take the suffering of this world and live and love it into healing. Pray we realize that we need the router of Christ to sort all this information out so that it might be transformational. Pray we are impressed with God’s gift of life. Pray we realize that God’s Gift is enough. Pray we realize that without God life has no value. Pray that scripture and worship helps us to integrate the experience with the right perspective. Pray we sense the presence of God through our actions. Pray we discover that it is in God we breathe and move and have our very being. Pray we live in and respond to the love God has shared with us through our senses. Pray we become one in the Sprit. Pray
we have a collective Christian Consciousness of Grace. Pray we understand that we can learn quicker by observing. Pray that whatever we learn from God we put into practice. Pray we are not obstacles for others. Pray Christ’s consciousness abides with us. Pray we worship God without reservation. Pray our faith provides inspiration for us to explore the natural world through the lens of scripture. Pray we learn from history even as God is revealed to us in history.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 