What Your Brain Can't Give You That Your Body Can

I’m absolutely convinced of this: one of the last things followers of Jesus need right now is more information for their brains. And I believe it’s one of the main reasons our bodies are not doing well.

Two weeks ago, I received some very hard news. The kind that stuns you. Knocks the wind out of you. If you’ve ever ridden Tower of Terror at Disneyland, you know that sudden stomach drop that hits just when you think, “Is it over yet?” That was my nervous system—ambushed by grief and shock.

It was a Tuesday when the news hit. That night, Sophia and I attend a Bible study. I didn’t want to go. You know the feeling—every cell in my body screamed, stay home, crawl on the couch, check out. But that still, small voice whispered, “Go. Be in the house of God. You need His presence with other people.”

So I went. And it was painful.

From the moment I walked in, it felt like an episode of Charlie Brown—everyone sounded like they were speaking underwater. The teaching video shot right over my head. I couldn’t fake it in the small group, so I didn’t. I told them the truth: “I’m here, but barely hanging on. I’ll be spectating more than participating tonight.” Very unlike me.

That’s when I realized—I couldn’t force my head into knowledge mode when my body was stuck in grief mode.

Looking around the room, I wondered how many other women were silently carrying similar body weight: financial strain, marriage struggles, sick children, or simply years of holding it all together. Yet there we were. We showed up anyway. Faith carried in bodies, holding on by a thread.

The next night was our monthly prayer and worship gathering at Revelation Wellness HQ. This time, I knew the only thing expected of me was to lay down on a mat and worship. Hear the word of God spoken over me while songs filled the room. That, I could do. That’s what my body could do.

So I laid there. Quiet tears fell. And the Lord ministered to me. He spoke. I repented. He gave me more in return. All I did was be. I left that time of worship with hope - not in my circumstances changing but in the God who changes me.

That’s when I put two and two together: my nervous system had been maxed out the night before. The higher brain functions required for study and connection just weren’t available. But my body—my being—still had something to offer.

So I settled it down on a mat. I offered my weary brain and bones to God.

And God met me there.

I wonder if you feel it too—that now, more than ever, God’s people need to learn how to simply be with Him. To offer Him our place of being—our bodies.

If information about God could make us wise and well, we’d already be the wisest, healthiest people on earth. But we’re not. So many believers are white-knuckling their way through faith—hanging on to what their heads know but their bodies haven’t yet experienced.

It’s often said that we shouldn’t put our faith in experiences of God. But maybe that’s because we’ve only learned to find Him and identify with Him in joy and blessing. What if He’s just as present in sorrow and suffering? Oh, dear friend, He most certainly is there.

We’re just too disembodied—and maybe too afraid—to slow down and meet Him on the mat.

But if God can’t be experienced in every part of life, even the painful parts, then we are truly a people to be pitied.

This is why I train people to offer their bodies, not just their brains, as living sacrifices.

This is what I want to give my life to.

Because right now, we are a generation distressed, disconnected, and disembodied from a wholly loving God.

And it’s time to come back home.

👆🏼Walk and Talk for The Weekend: Story telling time to get your hopes up. (Sorry, this one had to be in two parts. Got a phone call and I don’t have time to edit this together. So you get what you get. ;)

📣If you’re ready to dive deep into a season of body training—to meet the God who can be experienced in both joy and suffering—my invitation stands: come join us in the next Revelation Wellness Instructor Training or Live Well Health Coach Training. (link)

For the first time since COVID stole it away, after completing 9-weeks of your at-home on-line training, we’re returning to the mountain for a 4-day in-person retreat intensive. We can not heal our body-brain connection to God, ourselves and others, alone. Come get with others who are longing for God to fill their body-home. It’s going to be nothing short of spectacular.

I’ll be the girl crying in the corner—don’t mind me. That’s just joy and suffering leaking out of my bones.

His love,

Alisa