Why You Need To Awaken Your Heart
““Have you have placed much of the value of your life on productivity and output? Do you need to be reminded that your life has inherent value, regardless of your role or function?”
Saturday’s issue of the Globe and Mail carried this headline: “Winning the winter mind game: push back on negative thoughts”. In the article, both a social worker and a recreational therapist recommended trying something new and being physically active to get out of the cycle of doing less and feeling worse. Dr. Robert Levitin, an expert in depression studies at the University of Toronto and Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, added: “We have to do what we can to introduce novelty to our routine.”
In my daily walks, I have been experimenting with various audio and musical streams, including the Gather Women playlist and a couple of my favourite worship artists, Cory Asbury and Hope Darst. I have been going back to my roots as a musician and conductor and listening to some of the great orchestral works, including the Adagietto from Mahler’s 5th Symphony and the 3rd movement from Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 Op. 27.
The space it has opened in my heart has been nothing short of breathtaking. Enjoying the beauty of God’s creation while listening to symphonies that carry all the yearnings of the human heart have caused me several times to stop and raise my hands in wonder and gratitude.
I hadn’t realized that some of the places in my heart have been slowly closing during the pandemic because I’ve been so busy trying to do more with less emotional reserve.
The same brain that keeps telling you to push forward
has slowly been encroaching on the space your heart needs to survive.
Have you been paying attention to your heart?
The state of one’s heart inevitably shapes one’s life;
it is ultimately the place where everything is decided.
John O’Donohue, in his book To Bless the Space Between Us, reminds us that at the centre of our bodies, and all our human activity, the heart is really what holds us together. It gloriously defies the odds and continues to beat, or it is slowly being squeezed shut and keeping us barely alive because our brains are telling us to be fearful in the face of uncertainty.
A courageous heart will go forth and engage with life despite confusion and fear.
A fearful heart will be hesitant and will tend to hold back.
A heavy heart will make for a gloomy, unlived life.
A compassionate heart need never carry the burden of judgment.
A forgiving heart knows the art of liberation.
A loving heart awakens the spirit of possibility and engagement with others.
The power of the heart’s attitude is expressed beautifully in the New Testament: “Where your treasure, there is your heart also.”
The heart is beautiful, precisely because it is where God dwells:
the heart is the divine sanctuary.
How can you pay attention to awakening your heart during this tough season?
Walk in nature, read new books, explore a passage of Scripture that you have never studied, listen to new music, and pray for guidance for how God may be asking you to partner with Him in awakening your heart again.
Have you have placed much of the value of your life on productivity and output? Do you need to be reminded that your life has inherent value, regardless of your role or function?
The center of your life, your sanctuary, is your heart.
Nurture it.
Keep it alive.
Invite God into the sacred place and find renewal.
It is from this sanctuary that the newly invigorated life goes forth.
Even in the hardest times, like now, can you sense the beauty and privilege of being here?
Even in the hardest times, like now, can you feel great joy just to be alive?
Even in the hardest times, like now, even though the world can feel like a prison, can your heart still be free to receive the beauty that costs nothing to enjoy?
W.H. Auden has written these beautiful lines:
In the deserts of the heart
Let the healing fountain start,
In the prison of his days
Teach the free man how to praise.
I believe the Holy Spirit will be your guide as you explore some new ways of opening your heart to the breathtaking moments of sound, written word and beauty as His gift to you in this season.
May the Healing Fountain begin a new work in your heart today.
I believe in you!
Cathie