EEG Spotlight

I know what it is like to go to a doctor’s office. I know what it is like to have a counselor. There was even a time in my life, between school and everything else, that I had a total of four therapists. Revealing medical history and personal testimony is easy to me. Having a mental illness, a genetic disorder, and also a seizure disorder, I know what it is to be acquainted with my conditions. Yet, sometimes certain aspects have been more public than others, like the time I had my first EEG test done.

An EEG, otherwise known as an electroencephalogram, is a test that is used to measure brain activity. First, A doctor attaches electrodes, that are small metal discs, with glue to your head. Then, through an additional machine, wavy lines appear that reveal your brain activity. After your EEG test, the doctor gives you your results, be they good or be they bad.

I have had two or three EEGs done in my life, along with some EKGs as well. My first experience with an EEG was a “take-home” test. This meant that I had to leave a hospital with my mom, wearing wires glued to my head for two days, then come back to get the results from my doctor.

I was nervous about leaving the hospital, wondering what people would think. w Having a larger head, I knew people would notice me even more. I can still remember what it felt like to leave, sensing the stares of those around me. Yet, I was able to comfort myself with the thought that I was like Professor Charles Xavier from the X-Men movies, and that the wires on my head were just my own Cerebro.

I wish I could say I always have had such positive thoughts about myself. Yet, it remains an ongoing and persistent struggle to choose such thoughts. The temptation to think negatively has been present for as long as I have been alive. However, as someone from my church in Louisiana used to say, the ability and strength to “choose joy” has been significantly stronger.

I don’t like being different. I don’t like being stared or feeling singled out. I really have not liked “social distancing” and how COVID-19 has changed so many things. But, through every moment of feeling different, of not belonging, of feeling so distant from the world and the ways of the world, and in this pandemic,  I always have returned to the Truth. You and I weren’t made for this world. We have hope and salvation in a greater Savior.

So, in this time of continued “social distancing,” of being away from the people, the places, and the things we love most, perhaps we should change our thinking about current events. Instead of thinking of what we are physically distant from, of what and who, we have lost, perhaps we should focus on being “distant” from other things: selfishness, idolatry, unrepentant sin.

It won’t be easy. Now more than ever, it will be hard. Yet, every time we run from ourselves and choose Jesus, to model His ways, choices, and behaviors, people will notice. They might even whisper, laugh, or stare. However, if we have “heaven’s perspective,” we will know that this situation is only temporary, and when all is said and done, “the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the great Physician” will see us. He will know how we lived our lives. Knowing we passed “the test,” He will welcome us into eternity.

Then, at that moment, we will be completely and utterly free. Best of all, we won’t have to hear the phrases “social distancing, flattening the curve, or COVID-19” ever again.

Until Next Time,

Jacob McGowen