Lizard Brain and the Psalms

            I have recently had a few helpful conversations with friends about what we're calling "Lizard Brain". The limbic system, which addresses our most basic and emotional reactions and needs (food, fight or flight, etc.), is fairly basic, and thus most like a lizard's. It focuses on the immediate here and now, the instinctive reaction, often induced by stress, and without much pause-and-reflect action going on.

            In this COVID-time, many of us are reacting from this space. We're in distress, we're on alert, we're hyper-aware to threats. Our instincts have taken over, and often we find ourselves doing things without necessarily thinking it through (like eating a whole bag of popcorn without realising it, or getting through a workday "on auto-pilot").

            We are reacting to the world around us.

            What my friends were discussing is that this means we are often reacting to one another, in person and on social media, without the benefit of a pause-and-reflect. We are making decisions without gaining complete information, we are commenting without seeking the full story. We are not responding, but reacting.

            While our bodies may think that we're under siege, and it's eat-or-be-eaten, we need to be careful to remember that the vast majority of us are NOT experiencing an imminent threat. We need to take a deep breath, pause, and reflect - so that we do not merely react but respond, in an appropriate and intentional manner.

            To put it biblically: we need the Selah of the psalms[1].

            Selah: a word whose precise meaning is no longer known, a musical notation understood to mean that the people praying and singing the psalm were intended to pause for a moment, to stop and listen at what was happening. To be intentional to the teaching of the psalm, to be present to the full experience of that prayer. Selah - a holy pause before moving on.

            What a wonderful message for us to hear then, as we continue to strive to be the community of God's children despite these difficult times. We are invited to pause - to engage in a holy moment of sober second thought - a sacred space to move away from emotional-only reaction to an intellectually-balanced response. Selah: a divine gift for humans!

            So while God also loved the lizards into creation, it's not what God intended when we were loved into creation as humans. Let's leave the lizarding to the lizards. Selah.

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[1] Selah is found 71 times in the psalms and 3 times in the book of Habakkuk.