For the last eight months the sentence that has been rolling around in my head is, “My brain is lying to me.” The words are not my own, but rather part of the introduction to the podcast, The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laura Santos. I have been thinking mostly how my brain lies about what will make me happy, but my brain is equally good at lying about my failures.
Failure is the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective. Our brain often lies to us about failure in two ways. First, it tells us that our failure is the end of the story and we’ll never recover; which just isn’t true. And second, our brain tells us we have failed when we in fact we have not failed at all.
REFRAMING FAILURE
In the movie Moneyball, based on a true story, the general manager of the Oakland A’s transforms baseball by hiring Peter DePodesta (named Peter Brand in the movie), who had recently graduate with a degree in economics. Billy Bean (the general manager of the A’s) and Peter Brand built a baseball team based on statistics rather than the accepted way of building it on feeling and intuition. They built a winning team with this new idea and transformed how baseball teams are built. At the end of the movie Billy is feeling like a failure because, although the team had a winning season, which nobody predicted, the A’s lost in the first round of the playoffs.
At the end of the movie, Peter shows Billy a clip of a game where Jeremy Brown comes to bat in a minor league game. Jeremy is a 240-pound catcher who can’t run very fast. Because he is so slow, when he gets a hit, he always stops at first base and never turns the corner. In the clip, Jeremy hits the ball to deep center and then does what he never does, he makes the turn toward second base. Then Jeremy’s worst fears are realized when he trips and falls. Humiliated he crawls back to first base. Although it is not in the clip, you can hear Jeremy’s brain screaming at him, “You fool, you are such a failure. You know better than to ever make the turn.” But then the truth is pointed out to Jeremy; his hit went 60 feet over the fence. He hit a home run! Jeremy didn’t fail, but his brain was telling him a different story. Billy didn’t fail either, but his brain was shouting failure to him.
TURNING DOWN THE VOLUME
If we are going to experience the joy that God wants us to experience, we must learn to quiet our brain when it lies to us about failure. I think we have all heard our brain tell us we have failed, that the failure is catastrophic, and the embarrassment and humiliation will last forever. Sometimes we really have failed, but it is never the end of the story. At other times our failure is like the “failure” that was experienced by Billy Beane and Jeremy Brown in the movie when we didn’t fail at all! Our brain is lying to us.
On December 27th I am preaching at Foothills Bible Church in Denver. I LOVE the opportunity to preach at FBC, and I always look forward to it. However, the service on the 27th will be totally virtual, so I went to Denver this week to record the sermon. I knew it was going to be difficult preaching to a camera, so I was especially diligent to be well prepared. I preached the sermon alone, out loud, in my office, eight times so I would be used to preaching to no one. As we traveled to Denver, the car was quiet and I went over the sermon three or four times in my mind. I had it down pat. I knew every word and every phrase. I practiced my hand gestures and facial expressions. I was also aware that preaching is more than just a performance, so before I began, I sat quietly and prayed so my soul would be just as ready as my brain.
You have probably guess that when I started preaching to the camera I freaked out. I stumbled over words, lost my place and I totally forgot the reference to a verse I wanted to highlight: Isaiah 41:10! I forgot Isaiah 41:10! I have known that verse by heart for 30 years. I know it better than I know my own kids’ names, and I totally spaced it. The staff and pastor were very kind. They said I did a good job and the video team will be able to fix everything and the sermon will be wonderful. I tried to believe them, that they could fix my mistakes and make it okay, but it wasn’t easy to believe. However, I was able to convince myself they were telling me the truth. At least until I got home.
Once I got home my brain really went to work telling me I was a fraud, that the team at church was just being nice and the “real” pastor will probably record the sermon to be shown on the 27th. My brain was also telling me this would be the defining sermon of my life and there would be no opportunity to recover.
How do I get control of my thoughts when the volume on these lies is so loud? First, I need to listen to the truth. The truth is that the staff at FBC are good, honest, people and they would NOT lie to me. I need to believe them and not my brain. Second, I need to believe the scriptures, Romans 8:38-39: “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” I actually quoted these verses in my sermon, but I needed to spend time with them and have them sink even deeper into my heart. These verses indicate that even if it was a bad sermon, God still loves me. Not only does God love me, but Debbie and Willy Nelson have affirmed their love for me. So, really, what’s the problem?
IT’S NEVER THE END OF THE STORY
Failure is part of life, so we all need to embrace failure as part of living and never think any failure is the end of the story. And we must recognize that our brain will tell us we have failed when in fact, maybe, we have hit a home run. I love my brain because it is right about so many things. But if I am going to experience the abundant life that God wants for me, I must recognize the lies it tells me and intentionally replace those lies with the truth of God’s word and people who love me enough to tell me the truth.
Program Note
This sermon can be viewed as part of the service on December 27th, at 8:45 and 10:45. It will also be posted to their website on Tuesday, December 29. Find link and details at https://www.foothillsbiblechurch.org/
