Getting The Facts Straight

Getting the Facts Straight

Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless.

Isaiah 40:28-29

Have you ever heard of “brain school”? It’s an educational program, also known as Arrowsmith, developed more than thirty years ago in Toronto. Based on brain plasticity, the capacity of the brain to change and heal itself if given the right kind of stimulation, the program has enabled many children with learning disabilities to grasp what they’re taught.

Many of these children have trouble with what educators call “working memory.” For instance, they will learn their math facts and then forget them. Then they will learn them again and forget them again. No matter how hard they try, they can’t seem to hold on to the facts they’ve learned. Fortunately, such children no longer need to be locked in this vicious cycle. By targeting certain areas of the brain with exercises designed to improve specific brain functions, the Arrowsmith Program enables children to increase their working memory so that they can retain the information they learn.

When it comes to retaining theological truth—truth about God—some of us have our own problems with working memory. At times we seem to have a solid grasp on God’s goodness and love. Our faith sustains us through many difficulties. But there are other times when we seem to lose the memory of who God is and what he has done for us. He seems distant. We feel tired out by life’s endless challenges. Fortunately, our spirits are as plastic as our brains. Because of God’s grace, it is possible not only to learn the truth, but to remember it when life gets difficult. Today let us ask God to increase our spiritual memory, so that with John Newton, the author of “Amazing Grace,” we, too, can say:

Through many dangers, toils and snares

I have already come;

’Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far

and Grace will lead me home.