While driving down the road in South Dakota I saw a sign out of the corner of my eye. I thought it said, “Bed and Breakfast Winter Rats.” My foot came off the accelerator. The truck drifted to the shoulder of the road and I waited until the coast was clear. I reversed directions and went back to see the sign. I could not understand why someone would be advertising that they had winter rats. Maybe it was a plan to heat the cabin with rodent body heat.
I pulled up to the sign and looked at it more closely, it still looked like “winter rats.” Cindy helped me see what I could not see. It was “winter rates.” I had to look at the sign for a long time before I could see the ‘e’ hiding in plain sight. I was a little embarrassed. I took a picture and we head back on our way.
As I scroll through my pictures of the summer I have stopped at this picture several times. I wondered how long ago the sign was put up. Was it put up before or after it was a joke? The roof has caved in, the windows have been broken out, the walls are falling apart. Was it ever a rental? What would the winter rates be? Would they be more or less than the summer rates?
Brain lock is when first impressions blind us to reality. My brain resisted seeing “rates” because I had identified the word to be “rats.” The information challenging my preconceived assumption was discarded by my brain. I had to zoom in on the sign, I had to really look at the sign, I had to let Cindy’s words settle in my consciousness before my brain would “unlock” and see the sign as it really is.
My brain was locked on the cabin thinking it might be fixed up, that it might again be a bed and breakfast. The sign had influenced my thinking. The more I look at the picture the more I am sure that this cabin is just a stack of wood that will one day collapse back into the earth. The sign can’t change the underlying reality.
The people at the time of Jesus had “brain lock.” They just could not see what was right in front of them. They could not see the signs, they could not hear the prophecies, they could not understand Jesus because they had a belief system that helped them explain the world. It helped them get through every day. Jesus was trying to get them to see that the sign out front did not match the interior reality. The house they had been building was falling down around them.
Jesus showed us that power comes through sacrifice and servanthood. They could only see force and conquest. Jesus showed them that love was more powerful than anger and revenge. Jesus showed them that seeing our similarities were more important than tribal differences. Jesus was announcing the new kingdom, the new way of living. They were clinging to winter rats.