Monday, December 5, 2022

The Trigger of Evil Things

I can entirely relate to the "trigger" aspect that many people experience.
I hadn't thought of my narcissistic mom in years while walking the boardwalk at the beach looking in the shops.
I looked in one window and saw a very old vase exactly like the one my mother had when I was growing up. In a moment I felt a twinge of depression come over me instantaneously without any thoughts about my mother, just the vase all by itself.
I recall a story about a brain surgeon probing a person's brain while the one being operated on was awake. The surgeon touched a portion of the brain and the person being probed suddenly had the taste of ice cream they had as a child.
Nothing ever leaves our brains, the feelings we had, and even the physical sensations at the time remain always.
We do not have those past feelings until they are triggered and they do not dominate us, they are just there. And, these feelings in our memory do not come up unless they are triggered, then quickly dissipate because they are not significant to our lives anymore unless we have been continually messaging them to keep them alive.
This is why is it so important to put into our brains the things of God, it keeps us from going down the rabbit trail of evil thoughts and feelings when they do arise. Our brain can be so saturated with the Word of God that nothing else overrides God's truth.
Philippians 4:8
"8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is [a]lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, think about these things."
Those who are continually cogitating on the past evils, the present ones, and the possible coming ones, especially if it is politics will find it eventually rotting their sense of righteousness as well as pushing God out of their thoughts.
Whatever we are consumed with is what will drive us either to joy and peace or to discontent and anger.
When we fill our minds with evil we will become some of what we say we hate. If we fill our minds with Christ we will become more like Him.
It is not wise to fill our minds with worldly things, pretending to keep ourselves informed to enjoy the evil we follow. Those who follow evil are showing their mentality of sensationalism, the desire to love to hate something. For some people, it is a pathology. I have heard these people use the excuse they should be informed.
When I asked why we need to know that evil their response was to not know it was burying our heads in the sand. When I asked again, but why do we need to know it and what can we do about it they became agitated as though I just didn't get it.
No one has been able to use the Bible to prove we should know all the evils going on in the world. Someone even said to me, we need to tell others. My response was that I will not be responsible for filling the minds of a brother or sister in Christ with that filth.
1 Corinthians 15:33
"Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”
Ephesians 4:29
"Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear."