Take Ten with Pastor Don

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

(This is the script for the Take Ten with Pastor Don Podcast for February 28, 2024.)

Welcome to Take Ten with Pastor Don. I’m Don McGarvey, pastor of the Troy Mills Christian Church in Troy Mills, Iowa.

Somewhere in my library is an old book called “Dinosaur Brains.” It was written by Albert J. Bernstein.

The sub-title intrigued me. It was “Dealing with all those impossible people at work.”

There were strategies laid out in the book on how to deal with “power struggles” in your workplace; how to deal with bullies, and other manipulative types.

The phrase “irrational behavior” was used on many occasions.

The premise of Dinosaur Brains was that dinosaurs, when they roamed the earth, never got beyond instinctual behavior.

I’m not sure what the science was behind this but someone along the way determined the size of a dinosaur’s brain was about the size of a walnut. And they only functioned out of instinctual urges.

The belief was that dinosaurs did not have the ability to adjust. They got hungry; they ate the first thing that crossed their path. And if they didn’t eat it, they stomped it to death because it was in their way.

Some scientists believe the brain of a dinosaur was fully developed at birth and they never really had a chance to develop past their basic instincts.

This would explain, along with other factors, why dinosaurs are extinct today.

The interesting thing to me was as I read the comments made by folks who had read the book, and then as I began to read the book, I noticed some of these traits in myself.

Oh, I saw some of my co-workers but even more evident was some of the “dinosaur ways” in me.

I didn’t like some of those things.

Fortunately, you and I have an advantage over the dinosaurs. We can adjust. We can learn how to deal with difficult people but we can also learn how to over the “dinosaur” within us.

In the Bible, Solomon described dinosaurs and even gave insight as to why they are extinct. Listen:

Proverbs 14:12 “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end, it leads to death.”

It’s like the dinosaurs, their instinct said it was right, but it didn’t work out well for them. It ended in their extinction.

In some ways, all of Scripture could be understood this way.

It seems that from the very beginning, man has always had this instinctual draw towards destructive behavior. For whatever reason, it just seemed right. It made sense. It sounded right. It felt right. But in the end, it led to disaster or to death.

Jesus had the issue of “dinosaur brains” in mind when He gave us the Sermon on the Mount.

Several times you will hear Jesus say, “You’ve heard it said.”

Think, dinosaur brains. Think instinct.

Instinctually, we do not want to be meek. We want to roar and be perceived as strong, not meek.

Instinctually, we want to hate our enemies, not love them. They are our enemies. They must have done something to harm us. They were a threat to our plans for success. Or they confronted some of our dinosaur ways and we decided to stomp them rather than adjust our behavior.

The Sermon on the Mount was and continues to be the new way of thinking. It was a challenge to the old ways. Jesus was calling us out to be different. To love one another.

He was challenging us to go the extra mile, to turn the other cheek, to be careful about what we allowed our mind to focus on.

The idea of being concerned about what was going on in our thought life was something that had never been talked about before. It was something new.

It was a threat to our old ways and took some getting used. It was going to cause us to change our “dinosaur ways.”

The idea of “Dinosaur Brains” was the reason, I believe, Jesus taught the Sermon on the Mount.

“Dinosaur Brains” is also the reason I believe God has given us the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is the renewal agent of our minds.

When we accept Christ as our Savior, the Holy Spirit comes into our life and makes things new.

No longer do we function with our “dinosaur brains” or our “sinful instincts” with which we are born.

Christ makes all things new. He helps us adjust, learn new ways, and gives us a heart that is more like God’s heart when we encounter those difficult people and also when we confront our old ways.

Here’s how the Apostle Paul describes it in 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

Romans 12:2 “Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing, and perfect will.”

The “old is gone.” We are not to be held captive by our old ways. Our past is gone. We are a new creation. We can change and with God’s help we will overcome our dinosaur brains.

Well, that’s our time for this time. Thanks for taking the time to join us. If you haven’t subscribed, please ring the bell, and join our happy group.

And if you are comfortable with doing so, please tell your friends about us.

Thanks again for joining us. God bless you!

Always in Pursuit!