Highway Hypnosis

by Kyle Cox, Future Leader for The Rock @ MBC Loudoun

Know that feeling when you’re driving and arrive at your destination, then all of sudden you think to yourself…hold the phone, I don’t remember any part of that drive. Did you know there’s actually a technical term for this? “Highway hypnosis” is a mental state in which the person can drive an automobile great distances, responding to external events in the expected manner with no recollection of having consciously done so. I think it especially happens when you take a route that you constantly drive over and over. (Such as your morning commute to work.)
I think a lot of times Christians suffer from this condition when they are studying God’s word, at least I struggle with this sometimes. We crack open our Bible, start reading a passage we’ve heard or read tons of times already and our minds just take over; we shut off and don’t respond to the depth of Scripture. We ask the Lord, “What is there left for me in this passage?” Truth is, Scripture is so deep that every time you come back to a verse it can reveal a new truth to you.
An example of this recently happened to me. During a junior high student bible study I told them we were going to study Luke 2. They responded, “Isn’t that the Christmas passage?” Oddly enough I said the same thing when I first sat and studied it. We all know the story of Christ’s birth; in fact we will probably read Luke’s account when we sit around with family on a certain December morning. However, God revealed some things in that passage that I never focused on before. At the end of the story, after experiencing the miraculous birth of Christ to a virgin mother, verses 18-19 say “All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished, but Mary quietly treasured these things in her heart and thought about them often.”
It’s an easy verse to breeze right over, but there’s a beautiful lesson to be learned. We see Mary treasuring the culmination of God fulfilling His promise to her and using her life for His ultimate goal of saving humanity from sin through Christ. Made me think, how often do we take a timeout to relish the transformative work Christ has done in our lives? Do we treasure it? If we do, how often do we think about it?
Keeping our thoughts centered on what Christ has done for us can only lead to loving God more, loving his people more, and loving to serve Him more. More than anything it’ll bring more joy in your day to day life.
“Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.” Luke 12:34