Our humanity is far more about our hearts than brains

I didn't plan on coming here with a part 2 today. But God often inspires me to write about things he needs me to think about, not things I want you to think about.

So I spent my 2 hour walk yesterday reflecting on this idea I wrote about yesterday - that our heart talks to our brain 9 times more frequently than our brain talks to our heart. And I got to thinking about that more and decided what my heart is likely most days saying to my brain is - quit being so daggone lazy.

My brain is wired to keep me safe. As a result, I think my brain's first impression of everything that doesn't look familiar to me - at best - is stay away from that.

At worst - my brain is quickly deciding that everything unfamiliar is bad.

Maybe that bad is a place I've never been to; it's unfamiliar. Maybe that thing is a person that doesn't look like me or isn't from the same place I'm from.

Our brains are really quite lazy. They want to stop us at a first impression and get us moving swiftly along in life to the next thing and to the next place. Things and places that look familiar and comfortable to us.

All of our brains are that way. They are lazy. That lazy is often synonymous with judgmental.

I thought about my trip to Honduras last summer. Prior to going, the news was filled with stories about people south of our southern borders trying to come here. Many of these stories painted pictures of people who were dangerous and desperate and deceitful. Intellectually, I knew these stories weren't true. Yet, still, a lazy mind many days doesn't think much deeper than the evening news.

Then I went to Honduras. I handed someone a pair of shoes that hadn't had shoes for months. That person smiled and then they hugged. And my heart started shouting to my brain, I don't care what you think about this person. I don't care how unfamiliar you think they are or how different from you they may seem. This person, my heart demanded to my brain, is just like you.

This person cries and laughs and loves. This person feels joy in feeling wanted by another, and sorrow in feeling like the world has forgotten them.

When I came back from Honduras, my brain was forever changed about the people south of our border. My heart insisted on it.

You know, I believe our brains are wired to quickly and efficiently identify how different we are from one another. Our hearts are wired to override that snapshot and challenge us to find our common humanity.

I believe we are living in a world that too frequently lets our brains do all the thinking.

When it comes to our politics and our religions and our people groups and our neighborhoods - we've migrated and settled where our brains have convinced us is familiar and safe and comfortable.

Our hearts, on the other hand, are begging us to know there is beauty in the unfamiliar. Our hearts are begging us to recognize, by settling into our own safety, we've left behind so many who are hurting in unnecessary discomfort and danger. Our hearts are begging us to listen to the stories of peoples lives that our brains have written off.

Maybe there's a reason God wired our hearts to talk to our brains 9 times more powerfully than our brains talk to our hearts. He knew our brains were going to be quite lazy.