Our brains are wonderful computers instantly analyzing billions of bits of data as they unfold before us. Our brains constantly work in the background calculating speed, distance and space as we drive. While on my way to our college Thursday morning my brain issued an instant terror alert. As I started up a hill I noted a mail delivery truck coming down the hill. I watched as he pulled halfway off the road to open a mailbox. The terror occurred when I saw a 100,000 pound 18 wheeler coming 50 plus mph down the hill behind the mail truck. There was no possible way he could slow down. Those two trucks and my car were going to get to the same small piece of road at the very same instant. If he was not going to flatten the mail truck he had to come into center of the road. I would have to go for the ditch if I was ever to make another brain calculation. I’m not sure how many heart beats I missed as he chose the middle of the two lane road. I still cannot understand how I still have a driver’s side mirror. It was over in an instant. All I could see were his tail lights receding in that mirror I still had.
These brains we have can do some marvelous things. Each day they quietly make thousands of decisions as to how we are to nourish ourselves, physically, mentally and spiritually. They safely guide us through a maze of activities, many of which have great potential for harm. Not only do they house who we are they hold the potential for who we can be.
The real terror alert should be an awareness that we might miss our full potential. And what might that be? To grow into the very likeness of God Himself. See Philippians 2.
Written by Roger Bothwell on June 13, 2011
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org