Reflection: Missing the Right Brain in Spiritual Life

The season of Lent is a time of confession and repentance.  I associate repentance with starting things new, with walking in a new way of life that Jesus has set before us, with eliminating old bad habits and establishing new healthy ones.  This year, I have decided to use as a spiritual discipline the art of drawing.  Now, I am historically a horrible artist, lacking the ability to even draw a straight line.  My handwriting is horrendous, and my art usually is on par with most two year-olds.  Actually, many times a two year-old's is better.

That being said, I picked up Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards.  In this book, she discusses some research about different processes that occur on different sides of the brain.  Generally, the left side of the brain deals in logic, reading, language, mathematics,  time, sequence, analyzing, etc.  The right side of the brain is more creative, spatial, perceptive, unable to express itself in language, gets lost in time, and is also the side associated with art.  One side of the brain is usually more dominant than the other, asserting "control" in one's thinking and actions, which speak to different tendencies each of us have in life.

I am very left-brained.  I analyze everything, placing things in sequence, looking for logic and reason in every situation, and am very time-orientated, seeking to get things done in the most productive fashion possible.  While not a bad thing, I have this same mentality when I come to Scripture and my prayer time.  Again, this is not wrong, but I wonder what I have missed by not reading Scripture with an artist's eye, with the leisurely creativity of exploring the rich metaphors and linguistic mastery in the Bible.  I know for a fact I am missing an important element in my prayer time because I am left-brained dominant. 

What can we do?  I am not sure quite yet, but as I work through this drawing book, I'll see what I can come up with.  Perhaps some right-brained folks can leave comments below as to their own experience with Scripture and prayer!