My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. 1 John 3:18 (NKJV)

PRACTICE LOVE – PART 2

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Yesterday we talked about the neuroscience of practice and how repetition helps us deepen neural pathways and form automatic responses. Imagine a world where our automatic responses were love!? Crazy right?

The study that began this work was with some Macaque Monkeys. The scientists involved were trying to correlate motor function with regional brain activity. By accident, these scientists discovered that the certain parts of the monkey’s brain responsible for the motor skills in picking up a pen, would also light up when they witnessed another monkey or human picking up a pen.

In essence, the act of witnessing an action reinforced the ability to do it.

Anecdotally, most of us would affirm that we find ourselves (or have witnessed others) repeating the habits and patterns of our parents… both good and bad. Smoking, generosity, anger, working hard, being kind, being rude, addiction, exercise, discipline, church-going… just to name a few. These habits we witness become subconscious patterns we repeat purely by the nature of how God has wired us. (Sidebar: This is what I think that the verse means in Exodus that says, “…the Father’s iniquities will visit the third and fourth generation…”

So back to this verse in 1 John 3:18… Practising love has two powerful effects on us:

1. When we practice we reinforce the automatic response, making it easier and easier to respond with love. I believe this is why Mother Teresa became so good at loving others. She practiced it, day-in and day-out!

2. When we love others we’re stimulating a neural process in the onlookers to do the same (based on the mirror-neuron theory.) Once again, Mother Teresa single handedly incited more than a million volunteers through Missionaries of Charity and other sister organisations to love the unloveable.

It all starts with love… and the moment-by-moment practice of it…