A Busy Brain! - Hannah Allen

I have a busy brain. It’s one of the few(…!) differences between me and Steve. I could be asked what I’m thinking and tell you a list of a dozen things all racing around my brain at that very second. Steve is the polar opposite!

C. S. Lewis wrote something to which I relate. “The real problem of Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice…. And so on, all day.” For me, these wild animals are not only wishes and hopes but also anxieties and worries. For you, they might take the form of desires, doubts, decisions or temptations. It’s all very well to say that we ought to shove them back - and we should, with all our might - but what about when we just don’t have the strength?

I put this question to God recently when I was flooded with overwhelming negative thoughts. He told me to kneel down. So I did. I pictured myself kneeling down right in the path of the wild animals charging at me. As I did so, they all began to move in slow motion and one by one, God plucked them from my path. When I finally stood again, the path ahead of me was completely clear. I realised what a difference there was between me trying to shove them back with all my might, and God just lifting them off effortlessly with His. How sublime is it that through our surrender, God does His best work?

As Paul rejoiced, “So I will celebrate my weaknesses, for when I’m weak I sense more deeply the mighty power of Christ living in me… my weakness is a portal to God’s power!” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10 - The Passion Translation)