The state of our hearts is reflected into our personal lives, our relationships, and our homes.  The heart’s state is reflected in our words, our actions, and our presence.  You may want to pause, and ask yourself, what does my life show me about my heart?  I trust at least one area for improvement was revealed in your reflection.  So how do we shape the heart’s state?  The answers are as varied as we are, for shaping of the heart is birthed out the purified longing of one heart.  Maybe your heart is shaped by the quiet of nature, by mediation, by sacred reading, by gardening, by running, by knitting.  This exploration involves opening your heart to discovery, to be curious about where you might be called to step outside of your comfortable barriers.[1]  There are the barriers that have fortified your life, protected your habits, reinforced your views, but no longer fit who you are in God.  You have outgrown them. 

You are invited to enjoy the stillness and contentment of your heart.  From stillness flows trust.  There is a familiar Psalm that says: Be still and know that I AM God.  Something lovely happens in stillness; we move to a place of knowing God.  That is an incredible invitation. 

Come, know the Unknowable. 

Come, lean into the Holy Mystery of God. 

Come, hold the wonderous paradox of the great I AM. 

Come, be still and know God longs for you as you long for God.

Come, know the great stillness of God as well as the wonderous contentment of your heart that engenders trust.[2]


[1] John O’Donohue, Eternal Echoes: Exploring our yearning to belong, (New York: HarperCollins, 1999), 19.

[2] Ibid., 19.

Photo by Ryan Johnson