Life experiences change the brain. As we learn new things, brain cells sprout new branches and make new connections. These synaptic connections create new pathways on which nerve impulses travel.

Learning new things is like forming a path through an open field. If you walk through a meadow, following the same route many times, you will tromp down the weeds and create a path. The more you use that pathway, the more entrenched it becomes.

Choosing to obey God also produces pathways. The more you travel paths of righteousness, the easier it gets for your brain to go that way.

Disobeying God creates alternate pathways. The more you make wrong turns and choose sin-pathways, the easier it becomes for your brain to go that way again.

Sin is not caused by the brain but is reflected in brain cell networks. Sinful choices leave marks – changes in synaptic connections. When too many pathways lead to the amygdala (anger center) unrighteous rage erupts. If too many connections lead to the nucleus accumbens (pleasure center) addictions corrupt healthy ways to find pleasure.

Spiritual growth, on the other hand, can be reflected by building healthy behavioral choice pathways to the prefrontal cortex, the region responsible for reasoned responses. Growing connections to the prefrontal cortex, through spiritual experience and religious practice, may facilitate wise choices.

So, open your mind to God. Meditate on the life of Jesus. Read something that stirs your spirit. Brain cells will spout in new directions.

It may be hard at first. Treading out a new pathway though a meadow may cause scratches and bruising. Likewise, building new behavioral choice pathways around your brain may provoke annoyance and frustration at times; but God never promised an easy path. He promised the Holy Spirit to comfort you along the way.

For a video clip of brain cell pathways, click: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRLhlf6hDgU