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“Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?” — Winnie-the-Pooh

Your mind is an amazing thing. Your brain weighs around three pounds and is made up of about 75% water. It triples in size during a baby’s first year of life and then shrinks as you get older. Did you also know that cholesterol is key to learning and memory?

The brain can’t feel pain… and yet…a brain freeze is actually the blood vessels in the back of your throat that constrict when cold and open back up when warm again and is your brain forcefully telling you to stop doing what you’re doing to prevent undesired changes due to temperature. Studies show that multitasking is impossible, saying it’s actually your brain just switching back-and-forth between different tasks rapidly (I personally ain’t sure about this one, but according to the Dent Neurologic Institute, it’s true).

The 20th President of the United States, James Garfield, was ambidextrous and could write simultaneously in Greek with one hand and Latin in the other. If multitasking ain’t a real thing… then my man was switching back and forth like his mind was on cocaine and energy drinks!

The mind is an amazing and beautiful thing. Even if our brains shrink with age… and even if we sometimes, like Pooh Bear, stop to think and forget to start again, we are gifted with a mind to be used. I love how God used the apostle Paul to tell us: “So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory (Colossians 3:1-4, CSB).”

Arthur Fletcher, former head of the UNCF, coined the phrase, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” Amen to this! We bombard our minds with a ton of information.

Some good…some bad… some needed…some waste filled. God challenges our mind to be set on things above. We become bogged down and empty when we focus on all the mess around us. There is enough negative, anxiety causing items at work, at school, on the ball fields and courts, home and beyond that can drag us down and kick us while we are down there.

Stop focusing on the negative. Stop focusing on what’s around us. Instead, focus and listen to God by focusing on the things above. The next time you stop to think and forget to start again…Just look up.

Rev. J. Cameron Bailey is pastor of Kenbridge Christian Church. He can be reached at jamescameronbailey@gmail.com.