Life Matters - June 14, 2023

There is an insecurity, common to the human race, when facing thoughts about the transitional reality from this material realm into the spirit realm, with eternal existence in view; is it not? And are there not varied responses to this sense of insecurity? For some, and especially for the young, it may seem easiest to ignore eternity and enjoy feelings of invincibility instead, for as long as health and vitality may last. And yes, I was a teenager in the 70s. In the 70s, our feelings of invincibility seemed as if buoyed and carried on the pulsating sound waves of pounding instruments and the alternating screaming or else soothing lyrics of that mind-bending era. Though the grace of God kept me from the worst of its rebellious messaging. At least I think so. Most of the words were difficult enough to decipher by themselves, much less to string an entire sentence together. Of those I did, there were some that shocked my spiritual sensibilities to such a degree that I refused to go on listening. When “joining the church,” in my heart I renounced it all to such a degree that I could no longer enjoy my friend group's revelries with the old abandon I’d become accustomed to. I went through a time of misery when it seemed as if two competing dogs lived inside of me and whichever I fed became the stronger, to win the day or the circumstance. We now have the biological explanation for what was going on in my brain. When I began this journey of rebellion my thrill and shock receptors were quite vulnerable. Because of a disciplined home life, it didn’t take a lot back then for a “thrill” to release dopamine to flood the pleasure-receptors in my brain from which we get the good feelings coursing through our bodies. The pleasure-receptors and dopamine are a vital part of our physical makeup, the way God made us, to enable us to enjoy life. An enjoyment enhanced even further by honoring, worshiping God, as we recognize His touch in the handiwork of His creation. A makeup that is created sensitive, able to enjoy the “little things” in everyday life as well as the “vacation times,” but which become dulled, hardened, desensitized with time when the dumping of dopamine becomes indiscriminate, when checks and balances are ignored, “let go” and pleasure is sought after, or yielded to, with a wild abandon and upon its own merit. For more on that subject, The Next Story, authored by Tim Challis, has good recorded research.

It is now going on 50 years since I became a teenager in 1973 and if I were addicted to the “thrill value” of dopamine I suspect I had long ago moved on from “thrill” to “shock value” to keep those addicted, hardened, desensitized, pleasure-receptors supplied with enough dopamine to continue being able to experience pleasure. We’ve known for a long time that, for instance, the thrill of the Ferris wheel, then the roller coaster, then the bungee jump, wear off, that their “thrill value” diminish with frequency. We now have a biological explanation for why the action needs to be more and more drastic to experience the desired level of “thrill,” an explanation for the desensitization that we had known was there. While amusement parks are mere playgrounds of activity, where the hurtling of screaming bodies may amuse us non-participants more than the participants themselves, there is also a much grimmer side to this story of “thrill” and “shock value” going on in American culture. For instance, on a recent road trip we passed a billboard advertising something called “Shockwave” that caught my attention and with a bit of a, yes shock, I became aware I was gazing at an “adult” superstore billboard ad. While I’ve never been in one of those, I’ve seen enough roadside advertising to get a sense of what they’re about. They present a visible symptom of what has gone wrong in America where the pursuit of pleasure has become an end in itself, even while resistance to dopamine is on the rise and pleasure in “little things” is being lost in the shuffle.

Insecurity is also on the rise. To be secure. The cry for security is ever present in the human heart and is only found by being “in Christ” and “He in us.” Then, our pleasure-receptors can heal with time and by God’s grace. To which I can testify. True love, security, and joy are only found within the perimeters of God’s will. A will that He reveals in His Word and by His Spirit.

Life Matters!