SONOGRAM OF SCRIPTURE

A Glimpse Inside God’s Design

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind…” — Romans 12:2 (KJV)

There have been a great many times through the seasons of my life when my mind really needed a transformation by the Lord. And there were seasons when that transformation appeared impossible—at least in my eyes.

One of the most difficult began when I least expected it.

My husband had just returned from a one-year deployment, and I was thrilled. After the long separation, the three of us were a family again, looking forward to a new adventure and anticipating the birth of our son in four months. He had been home for a thirty-day leave five months earlier, when I became pregnant, but this time he was home to stay.

We moved some 2,000 miles away from my family and friends to George Air Force Base in California. Other than my husband and my six-year-old daughter, I didn’t know a soul. While waiting for base housing, we were living in temporary quarters, and everything we owned was in storage.

Then, only a few days after we arrived, my world collapsed.

I found a letter he was writing to the prostitute he had been living with in Thailand. Then I learned that he planned to divorce me after our baby was born—and then bring her to the States and marry her.

I had a meltdown. I had a six-year-old daughter, a baby on the way, and no idea what our future would look like. The emotional shock became physical. I broke out in hives so severe that the doctor prescribed Valium to help calm me. I was at a loss for what to do next—except cry out to God for help and direction.

Desperately, I clung to my Good Shepherd—to the One who promised He would carry me and restore my soul. I didn’t know what He was going to do. I simply chose to believe His promises when I could see no reason to believe everything would be all right.

And somehow, in the middle of circumstances that had not changed, He gave me peace.

Even my parents were frantic with worry for me, yet I found myself reassuring them that God had given me what I could only describe as a supernatural peace. It was a peace that made no sense. Nothing I could take credit for. Although the storm still raged around me, my Good Shepherd was holding me in the middle of it.

And there was still good to be found.

God brought several Air Force wives into my life who became close friends, loving and supporting me through those difficult months. Their friendship was a precious gift. I wasn’t alone anymore.

I knew I had at least four months before our baby was born, and I chose to spend them being the best wife and mother I knew how to be. There was satisfaction in making a home for my family and appreciating what I had while I had it.

Looking back, I still marvel at the drastic change that took place within me. My circumstances hadn’t changed. My future was still uncertain. Yet somehow, I had gone from a terrified young mother having a meltdown to experiencing a peace and joy that made no sense in the middle of the storm.

For years, I understood that transformation only as something the Lord had done within my heart and spirit. I never imagined there was another dimension to what I had experienced.

A Glimpse Inside the Brain

Recently I began learning something that fascinated me: the brain is not fixed. It can change. Scientists call this neuroplasticity—the brain’s ability to form and reorganize connections in response to what we repeatedly think, experience, and practice.

Scripture had been telling me for years to renew my mind, take my thoughts captive, pray, give thanks, and choose what I allowed my mind to dwell upon. How I wish I could say I do this all the time.

What I had never considered was what might also be happening in the physical brain God created.

That is why listening to renowned brain surgeon Dr. Ben Carson and neurosurgeon Dr. Lee Warren fascinated me. In their videos, they described what researchers are now able to observe through fMRI brain scans—giving us a remarkable glimpse of brain activity that previous generations could never have seen.

Both Dr. Warren and Dr. Carson emphasized something that especially caught my attention: scientific discoveries are now giving us physical evidence of things Scripture has been telling us for thousands of years.

That excited me. I didn’t need science to convince me that Scripture was true. I had experienced its truth in my own life.

I have learned through the difficult seasons of my own life that God’s instructions are more than just comforting words to underline in my Bible. They are instructions to follow. I haven’t always done that perfectly—still don’t—but I have experienced what can happen when I don’t simply read His instructions, but actually put them into practice.

It is so easy to look toward the night sky and marvel at the galaxy God created, yet we seldom look within ourselves with that same sense of wonder. The human brain is also a remarkable masterpiece made by His hands.

And then I learned researchers have actually observe changes in brain activity through fMRI brain scans—and studied related changes in brain chemistry—as our thoughts change.

Paul wrote, “Be anxious for nothing…” and then told us to bring our requests to God with thanksgiving and to think on the things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report (Philippians 4:6–8). Little did we know he was handing down a life hack.

Dr. Warren described observing a woman undergoing an fMRI brain scan. She was asked to think about the worst experience of her life. As she focused on that painful memory, changes showed up not only in her brain, but also in her heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing.

Then she was asked to think about the best day of her life. Those physical responses subsided and returned to normal. The scan showed another change in her brain, and Dr. Warren explained that her brain chemistry changed as well—including dopamine and serotonin, chemicals many of us associate with feelings of happiness and well-being.

So THAT was it!

A glimpse of the physical dimension of what I had long recognized as a spiritual gift from the Lord during some of the most difficult moments of my life.

The dopamine and serotonin didn’t give me that supernatural peace and joy. That came from the Lord through His Holy Spirit as I focused my thoughts on His Word and obeyed His commands. But the changes in brain chemistry associated with those thought patterns gave me a scientific glimpse of the physical changes that may accompany the peace and joy I experience through the Holy Spirit.

The brain is an extraordinary organ God created, but our brain and our mind are not exactly the same thing. The doctors weren’t suggesting that we simply think our way into becoming different people. They were describing what can happen in the brain as we put into practice some of the very truths Scripture has been teaching us for generations.

Then it struck me—this was a little like a sonogram.

A mother doesn’t need a sonogram to tell her there is a baby growing inside her. She already knows. She has felt that baby move and kick. But the sonogram allows her to see what has been happening within her all this time.

That’s what this science felt like to me.

I had known this truth without being able to see what was happening inside the brain, for I had experienced it in my own life. Now these doctors were describing changes in brain activity that could be observed as people experienced some of those very things Scripture has been telling us for millennia.

As remarkable as this discovery was, I didn’t necessarily need it. It simply gave me another window through which to see the wonder of God’s design.

And perhaps that is what has fascinated me most. Long before we had fMRI scans that could give us a glimpse inside the human brain, God was telling us that what happens in our minds matters. He told us to bring our anxiety to Him, to think on what is good, and to allow Him to renew our minds.

I still don’t understand everything that happened inside me during those four months at George Air Force Base—or during the many difficult seasons that followed. But I know this: when the circumstances made peace seem impossible, my Good Shepherd gave it anyway.

Science may now give me a glimpse of what was happening inside the brain He created.

But I already knew the Shepherd who walked beside me—and when the journey became too difficult, carried me.

CLOSING BLESSING

May the Lord renew your mind, quiet your anxious thoughts, and fill you with the supernatural peace and joy that only He can give—even when the storm is still raging around you.

And may you always know that your Good Shepherd is holding you safely in the middle of it.

Until next time, may God bless you and give you hope in your journey.

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The story of those months at George Air Force Base—and many other times when the Lord carried me through seemingly impossible circumstances—is told more fully in my memoir, He Ordered My Steps: From Shattered Dreams to Something Beautiful