Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
When life gets hard, does what we think we believe hold us up, or does it crumble under the weight of doubt? I'm your host, Dr. Lee Warren- I'm a brain surgeon, author, and a person who's seen some stuff and wondered where God is in all this mess. This is The Spiritual Brain Surgery podcast, where we'll take a hard look at what we believe, why we believe it, and the neuroscience behind how our minds and our brains can smash together with faith to help us become healthier, feel better, and be happier so we can find the hope to withstand anything life throws at us. You've got questions, and we're going to do the hard work to find the answers, but you can't change your life until you change your mind, and it's gonna take some spiritual-brain surgery to get it done. So let's get after it.
Good morning, my friend. I hope you're doing well. I'm Dr. Lee Warren,
and I'm here to give you some self-brain surgery today on the spiritual side.
We're going to do a little spiritual brain surgery, and we're going to bring Tata in.
I've got an episode of Tuesdays with Tata that you haven't heard yet on the
Spiritual Brain Surgery Podcast.
We had a talk a while back about a concept that we've talked about before.
You've probably heard me talk about the No Old Beaches concept.
I wrote a chapter about it in Hope is the First Dose. And Tuesdays with Tata,
we had a whole episode about that, and it's a really personal,
intimate conversation that Tata and I had about what we do with old memories
and what we do going forward after we faced trauma and tragedy and other massive
things. Lisa and Tata are out of town.
We've got some family medical stuff going on and some things I'll share with you later,
but they're down in San Antonio dealing with some sad stuff and be asking you
to pray for Tata and Lisa says they travel between Dallas and San Antonio and
visiting relatives who are ill.
And so be with them today in your thoughts and prayers. I'm having big trouble
with my computer this morning and the software that I use to record the podcast isn't working.
I've tried everything. I don't know what's going on, but every time I try to
launch that software, it's just not working.
So I'm actually recording this using a different type of software that I've never used before.
And it's probably not going to sound the same. I don't have the same type of filters and controls.
And so I I also don't have the same editing capabilities, but I felt like this
episode was important to you, and I want to get it out to you this morning.
So let me know if it sounds okay.
This actually, if it works, if it sounds okay, would be a really streamlined
way to bring you content sometimes without having to use the big recording software that I normally use.
And this could be used in a mobile application, or if I'm out of town or something,
I need to get something to you. So if it sounds okay, shoot me an email,
leighatdrleighwarren.com.
Let me know it's okay. Okay, we're
going to give you this old episode of Tuesdays with Tata this morning.
And we're going to give you this conversation that Tata and I had a while back,
because I think it'll be really helpful for you.
We're going to talk about why there are no old beaches and what that means looking
back and looking forward in your life.
And before we do that, Lisa has a question for us.
Hey, are you ready to change your life? If the answer is yes,
there's only one rule. You have to change your mind first.
And my friend, there's a place where the neuroscience of how your mind works
smashes together with faith and everything starts to make sense.
That place is called self-brain surgery. You can learn it and it will help you
become healthier, feel better, and be happier.
And the good news is you can start today.
Thanks, Lisa. Hey, so glad to have you listening today. I'm Dr.
Lee Warren and I live in Nebraska in the United States of America with my incredible
wife, Lisa, my father-in-law, Tata, and the Super Pups, Harvey and Lewis.
I'm a neurosurgeon and an author, and I'm here to help you harness neuroscience,
the power of your brain, faith, the power of your spirit, and good old common
sense to help you lead a healthier, better, happier life.
Listen, friend, you can't change your life until you change your mind,
and I'm here to help you learn the art of self-brain surgery to get it done.
If you like the show, please subscribe so you never miss an episode,
and tell your friends about it.
If you tell two or three friends this podcast was helpful to you,
imagine how much good we can all do around the world together.
I'm Dr. Lee Warren, and I'm here to help you change your mind so you can change
your life. It's Sunday afternoon, and I'm looking at the river,
and I'm looking at Tata, so it must be Tuesdays with Tata.
Amen. How are you doing, Tata? It's good to be here. I am well. How are you?
I'm really well. We had fun today, didn't we? We did. We did. We hit some golf balls.
We went and hit some golf balls, and the guy next to us wasn't having very much
fun. No, he had a very bad day.
We need to do an episode about anger management and send it to him.
And this guy was on the range and hit some bad shots and we watched him snap
two different golf clubs in half.
He was so angry at his driver, they broke it twice. He did. He broke the shaft
two different times. In another club, he broke in half.
So pray for him, whoever he is and wherever he is. He's having a bad day,
and now he's got to go buy two new golf clubs. Yes, that's correct.
Poor guy. Tata, I don't know if you've been on the prayer wall lately,
but there's some heavy stuff out there. Yes, it is.
And some of it relates to, I think, what you want to talk to about today.
There are some folks that are dealing with regret and shame and stuff stuck
in the past sort of things.
And so I just you told me that you wanted to talk about a specific thing today.
And I think it's relevant to some of the people that are putting stuff on the
prayer wall. So tell us what we're going to talk about today.
One thing you and I both heard it that a preacher from Atlanta,
he said, and I'm not quoting it, but he said that if Satan can't change your
mind, Satan can't change your mind about God.
God he'll change your mind about you that's right
and what he does is he brings you
voices from the past yes some of
those voices are very familiar to you some are not that's right some of them
are your own voice of your own making yep and I recall some time ago when and
I'm trying to say his name just flew out of my head oh Jessica's calling me
he said growing up he didn't know what what his name was,
I'm sorry.
He didn't know what, he thought his name was oh my God or Jesus Christ.
So think about that just a minute.
So everybody has a name, and one of the things that I've been questioned about
is, why do you say people's middle name?
Because that's their name. That's right. Somebody gave them that name.
And so how can we speak lightly of ourselves when we're made in the image of God? Wow.
We cannot. We can't criticize ourselves.
We can't judge ourselves because God will do that, and he's very capable of doing that.
That's right. When the Pharisees asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was,
he said, love your Lord, your God with all your heart and soul,
mind and strength and love as yourself, which means we're commanded to love
ourselves. That's right.
And it doesn't mean that we have a love affair with ourselves,
but that we respect ourselves.
That's right. And that's what we have to do. Now, easy to do?
Easy for me to say that? No.
Do I still hear voices? Yes. Of course you do. We all do. And we'll hear them
as long as we have the ability to do so. That's right.
So when you hear from Satan, if he can't change your mind about how you feel
about God, that you trust him, you have confidence in him, you rely on him,
then he will change your mind about yourself.
That's right. And what that amounts to is you'll come away feeling not worthy.
That's right. And there won't be any way that you can please him.
I think there's a counterpoint to that, too, that sometimes he changes our minds
in the wrong direction and makes us think too highly of ourselves.
That's correct. And that's why Paul said, don't let anyone think more highly
of themselves than they ought.
That's right. That story, I'm going to have to look it up. I don't have it in
front of me where it is, but there's a story.
I think it's in 1 or 2 Samuel where Saul builds an altar to God,
and then just a couple of pages later, he builds a monument to himself. That's right.
He says, hey, I'm a pretty good guy. I've won all these battles and God's favor
is on me and I need to make sure everybody remembers who I am.
And so I think you're right. The temptation often is to think too lowly of ourselves,
but sometimes we're tempted the opposite way. That's correct.
We have a tendency to, we have it, but mainly what we have a tendency to rely
on a negative approach. That's right.
That sounds so familiar to us. It sounds easy.
And some people, though, they may come off looking like they're,
sounding like they're thinking more highly of themselves than they ought.
But then again, they may not be. That's right. They may be wearing a mask.
And I think, and I don't want to say it was Shakespeare that said it,
that unto your own self be true. Yeah.
And so we have to do that. And I can recall many times saying to God that when
I said, don't you remember?
And it dawned on me. Of course, he remembers. He was there.
How could he forget? That's right. And the one thing that one of the things
that I've pondered about, and you said it most recently, that God will not tempt
us, but he will test us. That's right. We said last week. Yeah.
And my encouragement to you listeners and friends is to be mindful of yourself.
And first of all, don't think too highly of yourself. But at the same time,
don't drag yourself down.
Don't beat yourself up. And don't listen to the voices that play in your head. That's right.
And most of them are not encouraging. Most of them are not. They're not intended
to build you up. That's right. But to bring you down.
That's right. And so don't let that happen.
And then the other thought is that, and I remember a podcast that you did once,
when you went, old beaches, there are no old beaches. That's right.
And what that caused me to do, it was a prompting.
Something I already knew, but I couldn't get past the hurdle.
I fell, I was falling down, and then I had to get up.
Yeah. Let me set that story up in case there's somebody listening who hasn't heard it.
I actually told the story in my new book, Hope is the First Dose,
which won't be out until next year.
But we talked about it in the newsletter, which is where you're remembering
it from. And I think we talked about it on the podcast once or twice.
But December of 2020, Lisa and I had moved to Nebraska, and everything had been really hectic.
And we decided we needed a vacation and needed to get together with the kids.
And our best family vacation that we've ever taken, Lewis is murmuring and complaining.
Our best family vacation had been back in 2011 or 10 when we went as a family
to Kiowa Island in South Carolina and rented a house.
And you and Nanny were there, your wife Patty, who we lost in 2018.
And Mitch and all of our kids except Caitlin who was having to work back in San Antonio.
We just had the best time on that beach and running and playing and the surf
with the kids. and you found a starfish, a live one. You remember that?
And so we had this wonderful time. And in 2020, we were trying to find a way
to take a little break from our new practice here in Nebraska.
And Lisa found the same house that we had stayed in.
And that wonderful family vacation was available for rent again at the holidays.
And so we just did it. We rented it.
And Kaylin and Noah and Kimber and Jace were able to come.
And the rest of the family couldn't make it on such short notice.
But you and I had a long conversation about that. and I thought that I was going
to go back there and be able to heal a little bit because I'd had such a good
time with Mitch there and you thought.
Something different. And what did you think about it? I didn't,
and I begged off because I did not want to go back there and remember.
Because Patty had been happy there. Oh, absolutely.
She was very happy being on the beach. She was very happy being around the children.
Yeah. But she left her mark there.
And I didn't, the takeaway for me was I don't want to go back there to see what's after. Yeah.
I would want to remember what was before. You wanted to leave that memory undisturbed. That's correct.
So you had a take on it that you had some happy memory there,
and you didn't want to mix in the missing of her there. That's right.
And I had this missing of Mitch that I thought somehow I could go back there
and walk that ground with him again and heal something.
And so we had this opposite look. We don't have opposite looks at things very often.
But you decided not to go with us.
And so, friend, the story came about this, that we were walking on the beach
every day, Lisa and I and the kids, and little Jace had never seen the ocean.
He was two years old, and he was running up and down the beach and leaving his
little footprints there.
And I remember very vividly, there was one night Lisa and I were walking.
And the kids had already gone up to the house. It was Christmas Eve,
I think. And we were supposed to go up there and meet them and watch a movie or something.
And I had seen a young man running down the beach that kind of reminded me of
about Mitch's age maybe and saw his footprints there.
And then I saw little Jace's footprints leading up to the boardwalk that led back to the house.
And that's when it hit me that I came there looking to follow maybe Mitch's
footprints in the sand. And you didn't go there because you wanted to leave nannies.
But it dawned on me as I watched those waves roll in, that beach turns over twice a day at high tide.
And every day the footprints that are there get washed out to sea.
And there aren't ever any old beaches.
There's new renewal every day. And so you can't go back to some place in your past.
I wrote this to you, and we had a long conversation about it.
You can't go back to some place in your past and find what you left there because it isn't there.
And you can't go back to some place in your past and
avoid something that you don't want to see again
because it's not there yet and so all we have
is now that's right today because there are no old beaches
that's where that the long way to tell that story but that's no and that was
beautiful well done and this all occurred in in 2020 and everybody knew everyone
knows what was happening in 2020 the quarantine the the covid virus and all
that but and and this is what i I wrote to you, and I saved it.
I saved it in reminders on my phone.
In 2021, I will stop nourishing my grief and my guilt.
There are no old beaches.
Lee is correct. And I sent that to you. And I did it without doing a spell check.
I didn't proof the text. It just came out of me.
It was something that I had to say. It was not something that I had any reservation about.
And I've gone back to this and looked at it many times.
And I said, I will stop nourishing my grief and my guilt.
What does that look like? How do you keep something alive?
You feed it. You have to feed it. And you care for it. That's right.
And it becomes very familiar. It's like an old pair of shoes.
It's hard for me to get rid of an old pair of tennis shoes.
Sooner or later, they just get broke into your feet. That's right.
And they feel good. And if you allow grief and guilt to go unchecked in your
own psyche, in your own memory, it will devour you. That's right.
And it will eat you alive. And not only will it devour you, but it will devour
the people that are next to you. That's correct.
That are near you, that care about you.
What I did, and I went up suggesting that a lot of people might want to do as well,
And as we look at where we are right now at this time of the month,
and we've pledged to be all in, and that we are committed, the first commitment
has to be made to ourselves.
That's right. We have to decide that we are not going to nourish our guilt and
our grief, and we're not going to nourish those voices.
That we keep hearing it going around and around in our head.
That's right, because the enemy will try to make you have a different idea about
yourself than God does. That's right.
That's his original lie. We've talked about this a little bit lately in our
family and in regards to this kind of progressive theology that some people are enticed by.
It goes back to the first lie that the devil ever told people in the garden
was, did God really say that? That's right.
Did God really mean that? And he's still saying that lie to us today.
And you'll hear it in your voice.
You'll hear it in your head when God says, I love you. I cherish you.
I want to die for you. I want to give you your life.
And the devil says, he didn't really mean that about you, though.
He didn't really feel that way about you. Maybe these other people who aren't
such a bad sinner as you are, maybe these people who are smarter than you,
better looking than you, he didn't really mean that about you.
So the devil will change your mind about what God says about you and what you feel about yourself.
But we allow him to do that.
That's right. Because all we have to do to say to him is, get out of our head,
get out of my house, get away from my family, and rebuke him in the name of Jesus Christ.
That's right. Don't forget, that's our only scriptural instruction regarding
how we deal with satanic things. We don't have any teaching about exorcisms
or Ouija boards or any of those things, seances or casting out demons.
We don't have instruction on doing that. We have one instruction.
Resist the devil and he will flee from you. That's right. You resist him in
Jesus' name and he will flee from you. He has no power in the face of Jesus' name.
So you don't have to be some sort of spiritual warlord to deal with the devil.
You just have to resist him. That's right. And my approach to that has always
been that the light has gone out of my crystal ball and my Ouija board has a flat tire.
So you can't rely on something beyond yourself.
That's right. You have to start with yourself. You have to have a little talk to yourself.
That's right. That's James 4.7, by the way. Submit yourselves then to God.
Resist the devil and he will flee from you. That's right.
James 4.7. So my encouragement to you is this. And I'm not sure where,
and I see where a lot of people are.
And I'm not saying that this is going to cure all the problems that we're facing.
But Jesus himself said that in this world you'll have trouble.
But fear not, because I've overcome the world.
John 16, 33. But at the same time, if we give thanks and we are at peace with ourselves.
We will certainly live with happiness. That's right. We'll certainly live with hope. That's right.
Because hope is something that can't be taken from you. That's right.
Hope is the first dose. That's right.
That's my book. That's right. That's right.
And if you hold on to that, you don't need anything else. That's right.
I got a verse as we think about praying. And go out to the prayer wall, friend.
W1MB.com slash prayer. If for no other reason than to get some relativism on
your own life, if you think you're having trouble, you're not alone.
You're not the only one. The devil wants to isolate us and make us think we're
the only ones that ever messed up this bad or we're the only ones that nobody
loves me or we're the only ones that did this or can't do that or whatever.
And you get out on the prayer wall in about 30 seconds and you'll see that you're
not the only one that's dealing with whatever you're dealing with.
Even Lewis over there is dealing with something. He's fussing today.
But so my point is, get out on the prayer wall and connect with other people
through prayer and put your requests out there. Just like he says,
make your requests be known.
Put them out there and people will be praying for you. You'll get an email when
somebody prays with you. And it's very encouraging.
But I want to just say one thing about prayer. This little verse,
I actually saw in John Swanson's book, A Great Work, which I'm looking at again.
A tremendous book about the work that Nehemiah did building the wall.
Great book John Swanson's book a great work he mentions the prayer that Daniel
prays in Daniel 9.18 and here's what he says we have this idea.
In order to pray, we have to get our ducks in a row. We have to get ourselves
perfected so God will listen to our prayers and God will be obligated almost.
We're so good and we're so dialed in that God will be almost obligated to answer our prayers.
And that's the opposite of what it is. Daniel says, we do not make requests
of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. That's right.
It starts by saying, give ear, O Lord. Give ear, our God.
So that's your posture, friend. You're not coming to him because he,
that'd be like a genie in a bottle.
If he was obligated to listen to you because you were so great and he had to
do what you said, then he's a genie and you're the God.
He's an idol and you're the God. But that's not how it is.
You're asking him because he's so merciful. full. And with that in mind,
let's pray about all these things in the time.
Oh, Father, we come to you because we have nowhere else to go.
Father, we come to you because we trust you, we have confidence in you.
Father, we come to you most of all because we love you.
And because we understand that you love us.
You loved us so much that you sent your one and only Son, Jesus Christ,
our Lord and Savior, to die for us.
And through his death on the cross, you redeemed us you brought us back from
sin when we had no hope and now we have assurance of a home with you and through
the blood of Jesus we have forgiveness of our sins,
Father we love you and our aim is to please you always and our desire is that
we live our lives bring glory to your holy name,
Father, we are your servants. Send us. We will go.
Please put your words on our heart. Put your words on our lips for your glory, not ours.
Father, we rely on you. We trust you. We have confidence in you.
We know that you are our Heavenly Father. And Jesus, we love you.
We know that you are our Redeemer.
And so, Father, we ask you to come and give us peace. And we ask for grace and
mercy so that we may continue to fight this battle, Father.
And Father, we just give you thanks. Father, we thank you also and remind you
of those people that have continued to hold up prayers to you and ask others
to pray for them. And so that's what we do.
Father, there are some that are suffering and some people that are in such hard
places. But Father, we ask you to be mindful of them and we ask you to bless them.
We ask you to heal them, restore their health.
And Father, we just wait on you because we know that you hear our prayers.
And Father, we know that, and we're not looking for an answer right now, Father.
We know that in due time that you will do your will. And so that's what we trust in.
We trust in you because in you all things are perfect.
And all things work for perfection.
So, Father, that's why we come to you. We come to you because we need you, Father. Help us.
Show us the way. And, Father, we ask your blessings on all that are hearing these words.
And, Father, we pray that they will be like seeds and that they will mature.
But, Father, we wait on you.
In and of ourselves, we can do nothing. And so, Father, we wait for you,
and we ask all of this in the sweet and precious name of Jesus Christ,
our Lord and Savior, your Son and our Redeemer. Amen. Amen.
Thank you, Tata. What a beautiful prayer. God really is who he says he is.
That's right. He really will keep the promises that he's made,
and he really does feel the way about you that he says he feels about you.
And in order to know that, how does he feel about you, you need to spend some
time in the Word with Him, right?
You need to spend some time and understand what He says.
If you knew 100% that He really was who He said He was and wanted to love you
and do for you what He says He does, how would that change your day-to-day life?
And would your all-in moment be different if you really believed it?
Sometimes we say one thing and believe another thing.
And sometimes we're not quite all-in with being willing to put it out there for God.
But I just want to leave you as we wrap this up and this day up and this amazing
conversation with Tata.
What if it's true? What a great conversation. Every time I go back and listen
to an old conversation with Tata, I'm just overwhelmed with his grace and his
wisdom and his knowledge of the Word and his heart for prayer.
And I thought this would be beneficial to you today. I had all kinds of computer issues.
I hope it sounded okay for you. It's definitely a different way to mix and record
than I normally bring to you.
So I don't have quite the level of control, but I think it's worth it to hear
what Tata had to say today.
And I'm going to go do surgery now, But I want you to do some spiritual brain
surgery because you can't change your life until you change your mind, my friend.
And Tata helped remind us that the good news is we can start today.
Music.
Hey, thanks for listening. The Dr. Lee Warren podcast is brought to you by my brand new book.
Hope is the first dose. It's a treatment plan for recovering from trauma,
tragedy, and other massive things. It's available everywhere books are sold.
And I narrated the audio book if you're not already tired of hearing my voice.
Hey, the theme music for the show is Get Up by my friend Tommy Walker,
available for free at TommyWalkerMinistries.org.
They are supplying worship resources for worshipers all over the world to worship the Most High God.
And if you're interested in learning more, check out TommyWalkerMinistries.org.
If you need prayer, go to the prayer wall at wleewarrenmd.com slash prayer,
wleewarrenmd.com slash prayer, and go to my website and sign up for the newsletter,
Self-Brain Surgery, every Sunday since 2014,
helping people in all 50 states and 60-plus countries around the world. I'm Dr.
Lee Warren, and I'll talk to you soon. Remember, friend, you can't change your
life until you change your mind, and the good news is you can start today.
Music.