Your Brain on Joy

A life well lived is your best revenge.

There it was, my life on America’s Funniest Home Videos. The clip was of two gerbils running on a wheel; the one on the outside was running as fast as it could; the one on the inside (trapped between the gerbil on the outside and the glass wall of the container) was not doing so well. In fact, desperately trying to keep up with the other gerbil and the wheel, it was getting tossed, flipped, spun around, and beat up.

When it would try to jump over the outside gerbil to get off the wheel, that gerbil would promptly beat it back into place and continue running.

If you are in an abusive relationship, you know what I’m describing… your life, and what was mine.

So what does all this have to do with Your Brain on Joy?

That’s actually the title of a book I’ve been reading. Its helped me incredibly in understanding the wheel and the gerbils on it; especially chapter seven, The Circular Gerbil Wheel.

Are you still on that wheel? Want to get off?

Or are you finally off, and want to make sure you never make that mistake again?

Then read the book: This Is Your Brain On Joy by Dr. Earl Henslin

You’ll be glad you did.

A life well lived… it is the best revenge.

Truth

Are you committed to seeking and finding the truth even if that truth is not what you wanted to hear?

The man I was married to was more interested in perpetrating a facade than living the truth, with lies to himself and others. It was when I wouldn’t line up with those lies that we ran into trouble.

He currently lives alone in another country where the people he surrounds himself with have no idea who he really is; they are vulnerable to whatever he tells them.

When our daughter went for a visit, he actually briefed her on what she could and could not reveal. She was instructed to speak according to his lies, not the truth. The visit did not go well.

When people begin to see beyond the facade, he moves on to a new place and a new set of people, leaving behind authentic relationship and accountability.

Seeking and finding the truth even if that truth is not what you wanted to hear is difficult at best. Living a lie unto yourself and others is worse.

Seek truth.

Based on:
Love Your God With All Your Mind
Pages:106-107

Today’s read: 5/25/09

If truth really matters… then it follows that rationality is crucial to a life well lived.

For those willing to pay the price of exercising their minds and studying diligently, there is knowledge and wisdom to be found in Scripture; in the natural world and its operations; and in the accumulated insights embedded in the art, literature, and science of the different cultures of the world.

A wise life of virtue and knowledge comes to those who, with humility of heart and reverence for God, work hard at using their minds to study, to seek understanding, to capture truth.

Taken from: Love Your God With All Your Mind
Pages : 101 & 67