Though it’s only early September the autumn weather has already brushed up close. Having moved nearer the coast I had my my first taste of fog. A warm summer day lead to a muggy and very dense day of fog. It seemed almost like low cloud. What could be seen so clearly the day before, now it was like it didn’t exist.
The sunning views over the Tyne and down the coast were gone. It’s funny how the mind works when something you knew was there suddenly cannot be seen. I could get lost in a range of pondering questions but the simple truth I reflected on was how the fog brought my focus upon what was close up. No longer casting an eye upon the horizon but to what was before me.
Some might say in the same foggy conditions “you can’t see very much!” True, but it does bring the immediate space you can see into greater attention. The parallel between these unexpected weather conditions and my own situation, caused me to stop and reflect. Having just left a role I have served in for nearly a decade, these last few weeks have felt a little like my focus is very much on what’s immediately before me. I have to say it has brought me much joy and thanksgiving.
To gain a fresh look and some basic things and having the gift of time to truly be attentive to them has been a great blessing. It brought to my mind the time when Jesus’ focus changes, in his journey to raise Jairus’ daughter, as a woman grasps the hem of his garment (verse 30 in Mark 5:20-43). Jesus turns his attention from the on coming to the present, his time is given to attend to the now.
The Bible has a lot to say about the heart. Our heart, God’s heart and what’s being described about it. I am learning that ‘being present’ is a not so much a head action but that it’s a heart one. Those who’ve studied ‘heart-math’[1], know our hearts are far more complicated, and modern science is discovering again what the ancients knew all too well. We need to attend to our hearts, what’s right in front of us and hear, see, feel, what’s being encountered.
Scientists have discovered the heart has its own complex nervous system. Based on over 25 years of scientific research observing interactions between the heart and the brain they have discovered that the heart possess a network of nerves which contain over 40,000 neurones. More than this the heart communicates with the brain through: hormones biochemically, pulse waves biophysically and energetically through electromagnetic fields.
So we think about what scripture has to say to us about a pure heart (Matthew 5: 8). Jesus said pure hearts can receive love. Love is the way that brings tenderness and forgiveness and compassion to ourselves, that is honest with how we are feeling. It is actually important to stop and notice, to recognise when we’re very stressed out, or anxious, angry, frustrated, and being able to listen to that. Don’t suppress it, listen to it. Don’t resist it, for that is wisdom of the heart – welcome it and see what it has to say to you. Because resisting it can affect your heart rhythm pattern and therefore your thinking. Learning how to change your heart rhythm back in to a regular pattern that restores a balance in our system, bringing a calm state where we can make wise decisions, and order harmony to our minds.
As we attend to our emotions and allow them to flow naturally our hearts will be pure. We can’t have a pure heart when we are emotionally constipated. When we attend to our emotions they naturally dissolve – resting in the heart of God. The heart invites us to ask – what’s the most important thing in this life I need to attend to?
We can find a myriad of ways to let God’s love fill our hearts. The important things is that we do it. I was speaking to a retired senior leader some time back and he said to me the hamster wheel just seemed to be getting faster and faster over this last decade. He said he was more convinced than ever we need to make time every day and in the everyday to drink in what God through Christ’s love wants to breath into us. So I welcomed the fog descending, shortening my focus and reminding me again to pay attention to what’s before me, what’s in my heart and to discover a fresh the value of life in all its fulness. What unexpected interruptions help you to notice God and what the Holy Spirit may be whispering to you to be attentive to?
Theology Everywhere 
Buddhists are very much into the here and now. Some call it ‘mindfulness’.
I have to say though, that while it is not good for anyone to be ’emotionally constipated’ I find people who suffer from emotional incontinence quite challenging to be around!
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You’re opening about fog reminded me of the time I stayed at Cliff and decided to climb up to the Edge to see the sunrise. No sunrise (or not one to be seen) but led to a sonnet:
O Emmanuel
I woke in darkness, climbed with heart held high:
“O Oriens come, illuminate my day!”
Imagined sunrise blessing eastern sky;
a benediction of my chosen way.
But fog hung blankly curbing distant sight;
a whited sepulchre for my desire;
a seeping not a bursting of the light;
no shining mist, no non-consuming fire.
And yet the muffled stillness drew me in
and opened sense to humbler, smaller things;
to coppered bracken, fungi’s tasselled skin,
a rearrangement of a grouse’s wings
O come Emmanuel in tight wound band
and help me focus on what’s close at hand.
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Nice piece – and lovely sonnet. But please join my campaign to abolish the apostrophe plural!
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Just down the road on the Durham Coast, I took a friend to gaze upon the horizon, at first she wasn’t sure that the sea was really there, but then we heard it, and could smell it, all this before we saw it, like you our attention was drawn to what was ahead of us, where to place out next step.
I like the way you have connected this to the attention that is often missed, yet often needed in the moment, having had a technology failure this morning I needed to turn my attention to other solutions, the remembrance that paper and pen can work equally well so I have hand written an order of service, it gave me space to ponder the person whose life we will be celebrating this afternoon, the music the family have chosen etc. I was present to it in a different way, so your words about heart and head resonate.
Many blessings as you walk a different path, and may you bless many by it.
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I smiled when I saw the title of this week’s reflection.
Just last Sunday, while on holiday in Italy, I attended Mass at the local church.
The beauty of the Catholic Mass is that, wherever you are in the world, the structure of the service is the same, so you always know which part of the Mass you are up to, despite the language barrier. I found myself saying the responses in English, while all around me were speaking Italian.
When it came to the Gospel reading, I knew it was the one where Jesus asks the question “Who do you say I am?” because I’d looked up the readings earlier online. But of course when it came to the homily, I didn’t have a clue what the priest was saying, though he did have a lovely voice and a kind demeanour.
So I spent the homily time praying. I prayed that God would help me understand in my heart what the priest was saying, even though I did not understand it in my head, hence my delight at this week’s topic!
Knowledge and wisdom are two different things. Our brain is where we store information. Knowledge is knowing with the brain, but wisdom is knowing with the heart, even when we can’t quite get our heads round it. So much of our faith is mystery and mysticism, beyond our comprehension, but sometimes we just ‘know’ in our hearts what God desires from us.
‘Who do you say I am?’
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