Chaos to the Cortex

We find ourselves holding opinions we do not remember forming. On justice. On sexuality. On power. On enemies. Ask when the shift happened, and the answer blurs. We do not recall a moment of decision. We recall a drift. What once seemed clear now feels uncertain. What once seemed wrong now feels inevitable. We look back at what we believed five years ago and wonder how we got here.

Paul identifies the danger with unusual force.

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12.2, ESV)

Conformed. The word suggests a mold. Pressure applied over time until the shape changes. Paul assumes the world has a pattern, and that pattern works on us whether we notice or not. Minds do not renew themselves. They need retraining. And the stakes are discernment. The ability to test what is good. To recognize what is right.

We live in an age of manufactured consensus. Media not only informs. It forms. It teaches us what to care about and what to ignore. What to fear and what to mock. Who deserves compassion and who deserves contempt. The lessons arrive as atmosphere. As the steady hum of repeated narratives. As images that stir emotion faster than thought. Over time, we begin to see the world through categories we did not choose.

This explains why so many of us respond to events ideologically rather than truthfully. The reflex is already in place. We know what we are supposed to think before we stop to ask what is right. The framework feels natural because it has been laid down in small increments. A headline here. A thread there. A comment section. A feed.

Paul warns the Colossians.

“See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” (Colossians 2.8)

Captive. The image is not violent. It is quiet. Persuasive. We do not realize we have been taken until we notice our thoughts no longer belong to us. In our moment, much of that reproduction happens through screens.

Jesus told a parable about soil and seed. Some seed falls among thorns.

“… but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.” (Matthew 13.22)

The thorns do not destroy the seed. They crowd it. In our context, the thorns include the constant noise of ideological media. Not because media is evil. Because it is loud. And relentless. Over time, the word loses its voice. We still affirm it. But when the moment comes to act or judge or speak, we reach for what we have been hearing most.

The result is a quiet replacement. Christian moral instincts give way to tribal ones. The call to love enemies becomes a call to defeat them. The call to forgive becomes conditional. The call to humility becomes a liability. We do not announce the trade. We simply find ourselves thinking in categories the gospel does not provide.

This is not hopeless. Paul would not command transformation if it were impossible. But it requires honesty. We have to identify what is forming us. We have to ask whose voice we hear most often. Whose framing of the world feels most natural.

Christ stands at the center of the answer. He is the Word made flesh. The truth that does not shift with the culture or the algorithm. In him we see what goodness actually looks like. He resisted the ideologies of his day without adopting new ones. He spoke truth without needing to win.

To follow him is to let his word retake the soil. That happens through practices the church has always known. Abiding in Scripture, not skimming it. Gathering for worship. Praying in ways that quiet the noise. Testing our thoughts against the teaching of Christ, not the trending topic.

The mind is a battleground, and we are called to fight for it. Not with outrage. Not with tribalism. But with patient, intentional formation in the way of Christ.

The invitation remains. We can recognize the drift. We can identify the voices shaping us. We can choose practices that renew the mind. The word still has power. It still bears fruit.

But only if we give it room to work.

~PW 🌮🛶