“The trick is to consciously set up your reticular to look for input and ideas that will lead you toward SUCCESSFUL outcomes, not unsuccessful ones.”  Michael Dolan

How is it that you can hear your name being paged over the speaker system in a busy airport and filter out all the other announcements being made on that same PA system?

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  (Psa. 139:14, NIV)

Yes, everybody has one.  The Reticular Activating System, or RAS for short, is a very vital part of your brain. About the size of your little finger, your RAS is a group of cells located at the base of your brain stem that have the vital function of keeping you from system overload.  (I confess that sometimes I wonder if mine is functioning as designed because I feel that I’m on overload far too often.  But when I consider how it would feel if it truly weren’t working amidst the unfathomable barrage of sights, sounds, and smells present in our sensory bombastic culture, I’m happy to report that it’s working perfectly.)

As Michael Dolan’s quote above suggests, we have been given the incredible ability to “program” our RAS to determine what it lets in and what it keeps out.  Unfortunately, most people just leave that to chance and subsequently end up missing incredible opportunities and answers to problems they are experiencing.  As just one example, if they’ve previously decided that the answer is going to look like X (because that’s all they’ve ever known or that’s what they’ve been told by others), then that’s what they’re looking for. Notice that if the real answer that doesn’t happen to look like X, then the real answer is being effectively filtered out by the RAS.  It’s there…but it’s invisible.

Think of the power that’s in an understanding of this little-bitty part of the human brain.  Think of programming your RAS to let in the non-stop blessings God is providing and filtering out the lies of the enemy…rather than the other way around.  Think of programming your RAS to let in the virtues and attributes of your spouse that attracted you in the first place and filter out the negative idiosyncrasies that most tend to focus on.  It’s all a choice, isn’t it?  But most don’t understand that they have a choice.  We truly are “fearfully and wonderfully made.”  What an awesome God we serve!

Prayer Power
Lord, we thank You that we are fearfully and wonderfully made.  Your works are indeed wonderful and while we oft times acknowledge that fact with our heads, our behavior all too often suggests that we don’t really believe it in our hearts.  Thank You for planning for everything.  Thank You for opening our eyes to allow a glimpse of Your unconditional love for us.

Link of the Day
The Power of Successful Outcome Thinking

Blessings on you as you become more purposeful about what you let into your mind.