Elmo, The Hippocampus, Paul, and God

Have you ever been in a Kohl’s or Target that is closing in 10 minutes and you’re one of 3 customers left in the store? You know it’s closing soon even without the intercom reminding you to head to the checkout lanes because that’s when the smooth jazz or Bruno Mars comes on. Sometimes, you wonder if you’ve heard the song before but don’t remember where from.

 

Well, I can now say I have entered into new territory when it comes to niche places to have music enter your brain and get stuck in the depths of it.

 

It was June 1^st, 2026, and my brain was playing this faint melody was doing that “smooth jazz when Target is closing” again. Only this time, I was at home and realizing there’s no way to look up the song when all that’s playing is the beat in my mind. Even as I write, I have drawn the conclusion that I can’t even write the beat down without the lyrics helping that beat come to life.

 

Though we usually remember him as helping toddlers with the ABCs, teaching us about how bees protect their queen, and interacting with other puppets on the famous Sesame Street, Elmo helped me in an unusual way: remembering the song that was stuck in my head.

 

Aside from changing poopy diapers, cutting up sweet potatoes into chewable sizes for a baby’s mouth, and playing Bluey on repeat for several hours, having Elmo’s “Letter of the Day: A!” song stuck in my head rather than any song an adult would hear on the radio is the ultimate indicator parenting season is here and there’s no turning back.

 

The point is, God designed the brain this way on purpose. What our senses capture – whether it’s hearing, tasting, feeling, sight, or smelling, our brain reminds us what we sensed. It’s why people who see something they wish they didn’t say, “I can’t unsee that,” or they cringe when an unwanted song comes on because they’re bound to spend the rest of the day trying to dislodge it from their brain – but too late, it’s stuck there.

 

By now, it sounds like God is using the brain to torture us, but here’s the truth:

It’s about what we choose to put inside our brain that counts.

 

According to WebMD.com, “[The Hippocampus’] largest job is to hold short-term memories and transfer them to long-term storage in our brains.” Outside of memory, the Hippocampus is also responsible for learning and emotion. WebMD also points out that since the Hippocampus of the brain deals with memories, and memories are involved with every day life, it plays an important, complex role. Therefore, it can “talk” to other parts of the brain, and it needs to if it deals with such a vital part survival. For example, we need to rely on what we remember about cooking if we want to feed ourselves. If we get a deep cut in our arm, we need to rely on memory and learned behavior to provide aid to the cut so it doesn’t become an infection. Or, in the corporate world, we need to rely on not only what we recall from memory, but our ability to adapt and learn better ways of doing the same thing if we are to remain effective in the work place.

 

One example from my own life of my senses developing a short-term memory into a long term one is when I bought the Newsboys album, Thrive (this was the Peter Furler Newsboys that I grew up listening to 20+ years ago) right before Spring break around 2002. I was in eight grade, and my family and I were headed to Gulf Shores, Alabama from Michigan in our little minivan, and that entire trip and this album will have an eternal bond that no one can break. When I hear “Million Pieces,” “Live in Stereo,” and “The Fad of the Land,” I am immediately transported back to the 2002 on 21^st floor of our condo overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. The sound of the album creates the long-term memory I had of Alabama and the fun times created there. It brings the memories from 25 years ago to the front of my mind like I went there just last month.

 

Back to Elmo, if I spend enough time with him through watching Netflix episodes, or listening to his music on Spotify, then his voice is going to play a big role in my brain and his catchy tune will transport me back to the many other times I listened and/or experienced Elmo.

 

When Paul wrote to the church in Philippi, his desire was for the people to focus on good things; in so many words, to fill the Hippocampus with things of God: “Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” (Philippians 4:8-9, NLT) But then, he adds this zinger: “Keep putting to practice all you learned and received from me – everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.”

 

I believe this: to allow Elmo to truly invade the Hippocampus of my brain, I need to listen and put his words to practice. More fitting would be if my toddler listened to Elmo’s catchy song, then practiced what the little red puppet monster sang in the song. Next thing you know, Calvin is speaking in full sentences by two years old because of Elmo’s hit song.

 

Or, in my case, put people like Paul in my life and fill my day the words of God on a daily basis that draws me closer to the Truth and what God says about me. The Hippocampus wants and “thrives” off of connection with God. Why wouldn’t it? If Paul is as connected to Christ as he says in all of his letters – in Acts 20:24, he says, “None of these things move me…so that I finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus”) – then if the church in Philippi would be wise to practice all they “learned and received from [him].”

 

Choose today to fill your brain with Paul’s words, Jesus’ words, and the words of God. Choose today to surround yourself with people who love God deeply. Fuel your Hippocampus with memories with the Lord, and let it transfer those short-term memories to long-term.

 

“…Then the God of peace will be with you.”

 

According to Paul

 

“What’s the letter? Clap, clap. What’s the Letter? Clap, clap.”

 

According to Elmo.

 

Mocking Jesus

One of the lessons I teach my 5^th grade students is how words have negative and positive connotations. Typically, as an example, I use my physical appearance:

“Some people would say I am skin and bones. Others would say I am lean.” I would say. “Which one has a negative connotation?”

“Skin and bones,” students usually blurt.

Now imagine you and your best friend get into a fight over the last donut. You both want the delectable, cream-filled work of art, but instead of sacrificing your taste buds’ desire to consume the donut to preserve the bond you have formed with your best friend, you fight over it with catfighting, sarcasm, name calling, and eventually, mocking. Mocking.

Why is mocking associated with arguments and mostly unnecessary fighting. Meaning, why does mocking have a negative connotation? Mocking seems to introduce itself the moment nothing else works; like an offensive strategy that presumably gives those who use it an edge on the argument. As if we somehow got to the point of believing mocking can blow through the defenses of its opponent. But, it’s not just humans that do this to one another. Birds do this too. Please welcome, the Northern Mockingbird:

*Note: I am the owner of these photos and took them.

Is this bird a bad boy because it has the word mocking? I’ll let you be the judge:

According to a 5^th grade comprehension passage about the Mockingbird on I-Ready.com, “These birds can imitate just about any sound they hear. These sounds include those of other birds, animals, or objects. Mockingbirds can sound like a washing machine, a doorbell, or even squeaky door hinges.”

If you don’t think that’s annoying, you haven’t heard it all.

“And unlike other birds, mockingbirds LOVE to sing at night, especially when people are trying to sleep.”

Unless it’s “Graves Into Gardens,” by Elevation Worship or “Innocence” by Kenny G, I’m pretty sure imitating a song in the middle of the night at the expense of one’s peaceful sleep is a negative thing.

But if mocking is similar to imitating, like the mockingbird does, we should be like the mockingbird when it comes to being like Jesus. Ephesians 5:1-2 says it best:

“Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ…” (NLT)

So while the Northern Mockingbird is out there annoyingly following the example of your Maytag washing machine from Home Depot, you are called to follow Christ’s example – in a positive connotation sort of way.

At the end of the day, it seems mocking could be about semantics and what the context is. When you hear the word "mock" and "Jesus" in the same sentence, it is probably not a pleasant experience. You, similar to me, are likely thinking about when the Chief Priests mocked Jesus as he was being tortured and crucified on the cross for our sins and theirs (see Matthew 27:41). I am not saying the mocking Jesus in that sort of way is a good thing.

But if we’re thinking of mocking the way the bird does it by “imitation” of other things it is around, we may be onto something here.

After all, when it comes to imitating other birds, it’s not just one voice they mimic: “A mockingbird may combine the songs of 32 different bird species plus other sounds in a 10-minute song.”

Though it would be interesting to know the reasons they do this, the point being made in connection to Jesus is that we are called to imitate his voice in our daily lives. As Christians, the role we play should be to sound like Jesus in a world where it is very tempting to “Do you.”

Our world is filled with excuses to be individualistic – all around are billboards, advertisements, and commercials promoting you in an effort to convince you to buy their product. Recently, I saw an advertisement on TV during an NBA game break and its slogan is “Worship Yourself.” Speaking of the NBA, athletes are more frequently “doing what’s best for them” when it comes to making a decision to opt out of their contract and sign elsewhere. The star athlete and his agent believe they have been loyal enough or that their chapter in life has come to an end and it's on to something new. In some case, it is justified, but too often, it doesn’t have to happen.

Documented and instructed all throughout Scripture, God commands us to be imitators of Christ – to copy the way Jesus lived life and to study his ways carefully:

-         “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.  Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.” – James 1:22-25

-        “Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.” – 3^rd John 1:11

-        “Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” – Matthew 7:24

These are just a few examples, and what they all have in common are the words “doing” and “practice.” If we do what the Word tells us, believing it and practicing what it commands us to do, we are imitating the Christian standard set for men and woman who follow Christ.

We are mockingbirds, mimicking and imitating the sounds of whatever we worship and desire. If it is fashion, self, or the shiniest gadgets; if it is saving money, bitcoin, or investing in the stock market; if it is video games, fatty foods, and late nights binge-watching Neflix, we will imitate that sort of life in what we fill our minds with, how we fill our day, and why we behave the way we do. If I am to live my life wisely and go through it imitating anything, it should be Scripture, the way Jesus treated others, and God's call in my life. 

Therefore, if “mocking” is associated with the word imitating, than I would be happy to mock Jesus.

Spiritual Sleep Paralysis

"I'm leaving for work," my wife comes around to my side of the king size bed and leans in to kiss me.

If it's not a king size bed, it feels like one. For some reason, it feels different in the summer - falling into our bed is like doing a trust fall into an oasis of feathers that don't itch, but massage all of your muscles and sore spots. And it's not weird because they're feathers, not the hands of a leper. 

I look on my phone that never made it to the nightstand last night; fortunately, I did plug it in before my eyes became too heavy to stay awake. 

6:58am.

I would have already gotten out of the shower and dabbing my neck with cologne if it were just another average Thursday morning workday. But it's not an average Thursday morning workday - it's summer. My mind faintly recalls a time when waking up before this time was not only possible, but frequently accomplished, but my eyelids don't remember and don't care. Back to bed I go.

Summer break Thursdays for non-working teachers hit different, and every summer, I am one of them. Two years into my teaching career, I was content not working over summers, mainly for health reasons (pouring myself into my career for 180 school days can be grueling and time consuming for most of the school year), but partially because my summer breaks consist of six short weeks of vacation. The school I spent a majority of my career teaching in operated on a year-round schedule, where our fall, winter, and spring breaks are stretched out an extra week while our summer breaks are shorter than the other schools in the area and in general. Therefore, it wouldn't make much sense to me to work elsewhere for six weeks and then jump right back into another school year.

The moment day one of summer break begins, my wife wakes me every morning to kiss me just like my body kisses early mornings goodbye as I melt into the gigantic bed. During the school year, the roles are reversed as I am often the one waking her up. I often wonder during the summer weeks if I have any control over waking up earlier than 8am, though. Even sitting up to kiss my wife goodbye on a summer break feels like my head is filled with concrete and my lips have been in Han Solo's Cryo Freeze chamber for the first 30 years of my existence. 

The best my body can give me before 8am on summer mornings is five minutes - enough time to mumble my well-wishes and encouragement to my wife as she departs for work right after kissing her goodbye, feed the dogs if my second half hasn't already done so, and play half of Wordle on my phone before going back to bed and sleeping through three alarms.

I joke that I "took a nap until 10am" to convince myself that I didn't sleep in as if the five minutes I was up before my wife left for work counted as being awake. Though I joke about this version of Josh, I actually hate dealing with my half-dead body over the summer.

Every school year, I have two or three kids in my class who will sit in the back of the room, with their elbow resting on their desk and their arm stretching up to their chin where their hand rests. Their not listening, but looking at the top of my head as if a giant cockroach were on it playing a fiddle in front of an audience of children cockroaches. They might not be imagining a musically talented cockroach playing fiddler on the forehead, but they're certainly not focusing on learning about the area of an irregular shape. 

Once summer begins and my body tells me there's no reason to wake up early, I become that daydreaming student. My mind drifts to what it would feel like to wake up at 7:30 and spend my summer day being productive from sunup to sundown. Instead, my body disconnects from what my mind wants and wakes up at 10:30 - at that point, my wife has 2.5 hours of work under her belt. Can you imagine what could be done with 2.5 hours, other than sleep?

Give yourself a break, Josh; it's ok to sleep in every once in a while. The problem is, dear reader, is this happens EVERY DAY of summer. Eventually my mind and body have to be sick of it and use the summer to wake up when normal working adults wake up. 

After having an ounce of empathy for me, your next thought might be to change your sleep schedule. Go to bed earlier! You say, going into problem-solving mode as if I didn't think of this concept before. I have tried this idea, and on top of that, I have also gone to bed past 1am on a worknight - doesn't matter, you can't convince my summer break brain to wake up before 8am if it doesn't have to. I have taught a full day of school on 3 hours of sleep before - I wouldn't recommend making a habit out of this, but it's in these moments I note that it has nothing to do with what time I go to bed, but what time of the year it is. 

If I'm being honest with myself, I sometimes feel this way spiritually too. I tell myself I will kickstart my relationship with God the same I would a 2008 Toyota Camry with a bad battery. If I just open my Bible to the right book, read the right chapter from the right Christian book, listen to the right podcast, or find the right friend to confide in at the right coffee shop, I will successfully replace the bad battery in my life with a new one that will make my walk with Jesus better.

Me next to my 2008 Toyota Camry in 2018

Or worse. I sleep in. I get it, we all need sleep. If you need a swift reminder of this fact, go back to your college days when you were often confused about what your degree was in because you were a master at pulling all-nighters. Forget your bachelor's degree, you were getting your PHD in managing your life on an average of 28 minutes of sleep. 

Like any habit, our bodies, mind, and behavior normalize what we commit to focusing on in our lives. When I was in college, I normalized getting through the day on minimal sleep because I did it so often. The worse part about getting minimal sleep is not necessarily the physical effects, but the gravitational pull this habit has on you when it becomes a daily occurrence. Once you're neck-deep in the habit, you fail to recognize the unhealthy effect it has on you unless someone uses their entire being to pull it out of you.

Though the literal act of sleeping is a necessity, Paul warns us of the effect of using God's promise of salvation as a reason to shrug off the significance of spiritual practices. Why? Because our fight is not against flesh and blood, but something much more powerful. If you were a soldier in the middle of war and you decided to grab a few Zs, you would not only be a threat to your comrades, but you would put your own life and the mission at risk as well.

According to 1 Thessalonians 5:6-8, "Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober." When we consider the context of who Paul is writing to - the church in Thessalonica - it makes  sense. As we live under the protection of the knowledge of our salvation, we can easily become apathetic towards building a habit out of spiritual practices. I already believe in God and I am confident of my place in Heaven, we are prone to think. Matthew Henry Commentary tells us this should be a primary reason to not slacken in our walk with Christ: "...If we have hope in salvation, let us take heed of any thing that would shake our trust in the Lord." 

As someone who has a distaste for early mornings (according to my body), the biggest draw towards sleeping in is the comfort of my silk pillow, the warm blanket, and the soft mattress my body rests on. If it were a school day, and I allowed my desire to sleep in to trump my responsibilities as an educator, I would jeopardize my current position and potentially my career altogether because of my inability to show up, let alone prepare for, the students I am about to teach that day. Me prioritizing sleep over career would categorize me as ineffective in a field where so many children, parents, and co-workers are counting on me to be distinguished at what I do. Furthermore, if I shrugged off sleeping through my responsibilities with the excuse that I hope my kids can learn on their own without my assistance, I would most certainly be fired from my job and probably never get a good recommendation for the next one.

Similarly, if I rely too heavily upon the hope of my salvation and do not respond to this hope with faithfulness and allegiance to my duty as a Christ-follower - a disciple - I am sleeping on the job. Hope, used properly, partners with preparation in action. And what does hope look like in action? By how we live in community with others as ambassadors of the Truth. Our motivation, if not just to keep ourselves in pursuit of our connection with God, should be to "set a good example one before another" (Matthew Henry Commentary) and to encourage one another in preparation for Christ's return (See Hebrews 10:24-25). How can we help one another stay the course when we're using our time sleeping instead of staying prepared and focused on our duty as Christ-followers? Similar to the phrase, "I can't take care of you if I can't take care of myself," we need diligently stay awake in our faith in order to encourage others in theirs.

Hebrews 6:12 does an excellent job of summarizing the power of community and our duty to be wide awake in our spiritual walk into one succinct statement: "We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised." In other words, don't let apathy prevent you from following in the footsteps of the faithful before us by imitating them in order to inherit what was promised to us.

So, how do we avoid becoming another victim of spiritual sleep paralysis? 

First, we must recognize and admit that the battle is bigger than the physical. Ephesians 6:12 - "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

Second, we actively develop healthy habits that Jesus did to prepare ourselves for the bigger war being fought; Jesus fasted, Jesus prayed, Jesus spent time in the community and with his closest friends (he didn't isolate himself), Jesus remained obedient to God, and Jesus let the Word of God drive his mission (see Matthew 4 when he is tempted). In other words, do what Jesus did while he walked the earth. 

Third, do not give up! Often, I connect my circumstances to God's goodness rather than connect God's goodness to my circumstances. Our circumstances change like the weather - God is unchanging. Paul made it clear to the church of Galatia how he, Titus, and Barnabas and fought the spiritual war: "...we did not give up and submit to these people ['false brothers'] for even a moment" (Galatians 2:5). They did not give up, according to Paul, because they had a purpose, which was to preserve the Gospel for the Galatians. If we remain true to who we are under the eternal protection and unconditional love of Christ, not allowing our circumstances to sway our faith, we will be "strong and immovable" (1 Corinthians 15:58) in our allegiance to Christ. 

Like most aspects of our life, our decisions are a part of the cause-and-effect cycle. All of our reactions and responses are a result of the previous experiences we've had. Therefore, if we make our daily life decisions and place them through the filter of these three steps, the Holy Spirit will help us remain sober, vigilant, and diligent to our duty as disciples of Jesus.

Consider what Paul said to the Ephesians: 

"'Wake up, sleeper. Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine upon you.' Be careful, then, how you live - not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil."

So, the choice is yours. Will you sleep through your responsibilities, or embrace them and allow God to take you on an adventure with him?