1 Blessed is the one

    who does not walk in step with the wicked

or stand in the way that sinners take

    or sit in the company of mockers,

2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,

    and who meditates on his law day and night.

3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,

    which yields its fruit in season

and whose leaf does not wither—

    whatever they do prospers.

 

4 Not so the wicked!

    They are like chaff

    that the wind blows away.

5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

    nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

 

6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,

    but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.  (Psalm 1)

 

“Usually an earworm is a fragment of music, usually three or four bars, which go round and round and round,” (Dr. Oliver Sacks)

 

I had the theme song from “Sponge Bob, Squarepants” going through my head incessantly the other day.  “Who lives in a pineapple, under the sea?  Sponge Bob, Squarepants!”.

 

Lol.  Now its going through your head, isn’t it! 

 

What’s makes this whole thing even more irritating is that I really can’t abide the cartoon that this theme song comes from.  The rest of the family finds the show really clever and amusing; I just find it irritating.  My family has even been known to quote dialog from the show at me just to get under my skin.  And much to their amusement, it never fails to get under my skin. 

 

We’ve all had little fragments of music stuck in our heads; its actually a verified phenomena that seems to go with having access to music all the time.  Psychologists aren’t sure of the exact mechanism; but have shown that the same part of your brain that’s active when you listen to music, is also active when you remember music.  For some reason, music seems to have the ability to access your memories in a way that’s really powerful.  This can be useful; I mean, don’t most of us English speakers know the order of our alphabet because we sing it to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”?

 

Now are all of you singing “Twinkle, Twinkle in your head”?

 

And all of this, of course, has got me thinking – if our brains can access random repetitive theme songs from shows we don’t even like, and then play it on an incessant feedback loop, then how many other phrases and ideas are being randomly played in our heads in a feedback loop?  You know what I’m thinking of, right?  Those thoughts like “I’m not good enough”, or “That was a really stupid thing to do”, or “I really don’t think I can manage this situation”. 

 

And I wonder if those random phrases, that almost involuntarily get brought up in situations are irritating our sense of ourselves and God’s call on our lives as God’s good creation.  But we let them just float on by, because, like music, we are constantly ‘hearing’ those phrases repeated and so they get stuck in a loop.  The problem with these intrusive and involuntary thoughts is that they actually can determine how we go about our day and how we view ourselves.  What I mean about this is that if we ‘hear’ that we aren’t good enough, or that we aren’t competent to handle a situation we need to, then it scratches enough at our sense of self that we actually believe that its true. 

 

Apparently, the antidote to an earworm is to recall and insert another piece of music in its place. Or to play another piece of music in its entirety to fill that space in our brain.  And I’m thinking that maybe the antidote to the loop of self criticism and deprecation is to do something similar; and that’s to recall and insert another phrase or idea in your head; or to, as the psalmist suggests – to meditate on God’s law (or God’s phrases for us) day and night. 

 

Now don’t go closing your eyes and actually ‘meditating’ your days away!  Its gonna be a problem if you need to drive into town for an appointment or for groceries!  But maybe, instead of letting those negative and intrusive thoughts that are in a loop in your head just continue their incessant irritation, you could insert some of God’s thoughts instead. 

 

God’s thoughts that remind you that you are “fearfully and wonderfully made”.

God’s thoughts that remind you that all of us are “gifted, called and chosen”.

God’s thoughts that remind you that you were created for a purpose.  And loved beyond imagination.

God’s thoughts that guide you forward, rather than keep you stuck in the never ending loop of destructions. 

 

So, my dear Bethel Friends, join me in creating a new ‘earworm’ for our lives.  One that breathes new life into all of us.

 

Blessings today, and meditate on the truth that you are Loved,

~Rev. Lynne