Proprioceptors: these are small sensory organs nestled among the fibers of tendons in joints. They respond to compression from various angles and report to the brain command center what position a particular body part is in and how fast it is moving. This is key because the brain command center uses this info to predict where you will be by the time motor command directions get to your moving parts. The perfect choreography between proprioceptors and motor cortex is what allows smooth movement. Michael Jordan must have REALLY good proprioceptors. In fact, I wonder if God created him with a few extra. But then, that is for God to say, not me.

The cool thing is: we’ve got little sensors in our bodies that allow us to ‘know’ what position our body is in even when we’re not looking at it.

Try this: put your arm behind your back (no peeking) and bend your elbow to 90 degrees. Are you there? (ok, now you can check) I’ll bet you are pretty close. So, how did you know how much to bend your elbow? Yep – your proprioceptors were reporting in on you, and you didn’t even know it!

Sorry – got a little carried away there. So what’s my point? We were created with a mechanism in place which sends and receives signals (subconscious signals) about movement. An internal sensor of external movement. Doesn’t that just sound like something God would do? In fact, it sounds so good I’ll bet God might even use that design somewhere else.

Like in our thoughts, or our memories or our lives. Does He plant something inside (God GPS, let’s call it a G-chip) that matches our experience to our response? Perhaps it taps just the right words when you need them? or just the right image when it’s called for? or just the right feeling when it’s called out? All without our conscious thought. It would be the connection between stored ability and His intended matched response.  Imagine how quickly that routing system would have to be.

Unless we tried to think about it. Thinking, puzzling, analyzing – those would pretty much bring the system to halt. It’s the sort of reflexiveness, the automaticity that allows effectiveness. A trust. I think the best I can do, and I do think God intends for me to do my part, is to fill up the library of things upon which God can call. Pour in the good thinking, the powerful words, the amazing experiences, the beautiful images. Reflect on them. Settle them deeply. All part of the reference library.

Ha! My kids can hardly conceive of the stacks I think of when I call to mind a well-stocked library. No, they think of countless wireless connections, circuitry that is silent, specific and super fast and all accessible by a small keyboard or a button on a smart phone. What we couldn’t even imagine, they expect immediately. “What! No wireless! Let’s go somewhere else!”

More than I can ask or imagine, that’s what the God I know offers. But He uses the raw materials at hand – me and you.

Oh come on. Haven’t you ever come up with words or an image that were just right and thought…where did that come from?