Neuroscience of Story-Telling and Its Spiritual Benefits
Everybody enjoys story-telling whether it be in a book or something a colleague is narrating to us. We usually get more engaged in an exchange undergirded by a story than in a non-story telling discourse. But why is this the case? The reason is that whenever we are listening to a story a certain part of our brain that would otherwise be dormant becomes activated. Not only do the language processing parts of our brain get activated, but all other parts of our brain that we would use if we were actually experiencing the events being told in the story get activated as well. For example, if our friend is telling a story that describes a certain singer and says “he sang in a smooth velvety voice” our sensory cortex becomes aroused. Similarly when we say things like “he quickly threw the ball over the fence” our motor cortex becomes activated. Scientists claim that when we tell a person a story about what happened to us to help us get over some hurdle in life, what we are saying can actually have the same effect on our audience. Is it any wonder that Jesus used stories in most of his teachings? “A sower went out sow…” (Matthew 13: 3-9) or “whoever hears these sayings and does them will is likened to a man who build his house on a rock…” (Matthew 7: 24, 25).
Jesus and Your Intrinsic Value as a Child of God!
The tragedy of our world is that our communities are fragmented and demarcated according to gender, ethnicity, race, socio-economic statuses, religio-political affiliations, etc…each jostling and vying for prominence and dominance, usually in vain. This is hardly a novel phenomenon. It is something that is as old as mankind. In the days of Jesus intra and inter-racial strife and hostilities abounded. For instance, intra-Jewish unrest was rife, often fueled by socio-economic and spiritual inequalities. Those who were perceived as custodians of the Law loaded it over the masses, to the chagrin of the latter. Inter-racial discord was equally palpable. The Jews hated their Roman oppressors, marginalized women and children, and despised the Samaritans whom they regarded as unclean half-breeds. Jesus, whose mission was to establish a universal kingdom that would reconcile all mankind to God, often ignored and even violated these invisible lines of separation. He allowed people of both genders, various ethnic groups, social strata and different age groups to have access to him. This was his object lesson to those who selfishly insisted on the disenfranchisement of the vulnerable among them. All people from assorted social groups including those with incurable infectious diseases and outcasts who lived on the peripheries of society found a ready and compassionate audience in Him.
The account of His encounter with the Samaritan woman epitomizes His inclusiveness and speaks volumes about how He upheld the dignity and value of each human being. He responded to her defensive viewpoints regarding the discord between Jews and Samaritans with compassionate insight and tact. Sensing a deeper need than what she was articulating, He gently steered the conversation to the wounds that had ravaged her soul hitherto and offered her a permanent remedy for them- a remedy which had eluded her all her life. It was inconsequential that she was a woman and a Samaritan. What the Lord saw in this woman was a soul that had been cruelly exploited and squeezed to the fringes of the mainstream society by social predators, and needed to be forgiven, healed and integrated into the family of God. In Jesus, those who have no voices find their voices and those who are looking in from the outside are gently brought into His fellowship and are restored. No wonder this woman abandoned her water pot in her rush to proclaim her discovery of One who could take the shards of her shattered life and make a beautiful mosaic out of them. Who wouldn’t?
Slow Start’s Hidden Blessings!
Do not be discouraged by a slow start. Just keep going. It is a time of testing and resolve, and for building a solid foundation.
Take a look at what the experts say about why a slow start is better:
The Heavens Declare the Glory of God
A pulsar is a highly magnetised neutron star, with a radius of 10-15 km, having somewhat greater mass than the Sun which has a radius of approximately 1 million km. Radiation is beamed out along the magnetic poles and pulses of radiation are received as the beam crosses the Earth, in the same manner.
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The Perfect Prescription2014 