The Teenage Brain
What exactly goes on in the teenage brain? After we move past all the humorous clichés about the adolescent mind, France Jensen and Amy Ellis Nutt help us understand what neuroscience reveals about the human brain between ages 13 and 26. Their book, The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults (Harper, 2015), serves as an enlightening and convicting source of wisdom for those who spend time with struggling-to-be-adults.
I will allow you to get your own copy of the book and mine for yourself all the gems in Jensen and Nutt’s work. But one aspect I hold up here for appreciation: neuroplasticity. This fancy term means that the teenage brain is in a season of rapid and exciting growth and change. Everything is in flux, potential is becoming reality, and trails in the wilderness of human biology and behavior are being blazed at every moment.
I think one of the most important functions of our ministry at Sonlight is to allow for growth and change. Campers can ask questions they might not have openings to ask in everyday life. They can try on strange voices and humor during skits at campfire. They experiment with their voices on silly songs, new worship songs, or new conversations. They can experiment with trust and critical thinking on the teams’ course. They can wonder with a counselor or speaker about growing up and living into a new faith.
Growth and change are ever-risky. Sonlight seeks to provide a place where that risk can be supported by thoughtful, caring, and challenging adults. We know that God is growing our campers into unforeseen things, and we try to make a place for them to discover what those things are.
We trust that Jesus Christ calls us all into the eternal kind of life. Growing into that life means changing the hard-wiring of the soul to discover new challenges, opportunities and joys. The adolescent brain is ready to grow into these new pathways, as Jensen and Nutt reveal. Sonlight seeks to help that process in loving, patient, and powerful ways. We hope you can join us in praying for all of our youth as they discover the identities God wants them to have in Christ.
~ emrys