Looking at the world it is easy to see all that is wrong. Our minds, our hearts and souls are bombarded with darkness. There is much darkness, let’s not pretend. It is so easy for our hearts and minds to be filled with fear about it all. That though is not all there is and as I go through my daily life, this is not what I experience. I bear witness to loving generosity everywhere and every day.
Last Sunday I received so much that filled my heart. After the service at Altrincham. Will Pitcher gave me some wonderful gifts of behalf of his family, for helping them through the loss of both of their parents Hugh and Pat. It was a lovely book “The Complete Winnie the Pooh Collection” and music box that played “You are my sunshine, you make me happy when sky’s are grey”. Inside it read “There is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think”. The family noticed I had a Winnie the Pooh diary. I get one every year. Now the reason they noticed it was due to one of my empty headed moments. The first time I went to visit them I accidently picked up last years diary. I only noticed this as I was about to set a date to meet again. It brought much mirth and human connection and it was obviously something they held in their hearts. They responded in love from their hearts and wanted to pour out that love in gratitude. They are a credit to Pat and Hugh.
That evening I met with friends as I always do. As they were leaving one said he wanted a word with me. We spoke for a short while and then he presented me with a gift. It was another thank for something many years ago that has led to so many wonderful things. It is crafted from glass cup in the shape of a pile of books. It is of deep significance to him and countless others and I cannot begin to tell how much it meant to me.
I returned home in the beautiful summer sun and unpacked the gift. I didn’t at this moment know what it was going to be. As I picked a knife from the draw I must have put my keys down. I opened it up and was so moved I decided I wanted to take a picture and share with people. I thought it would be better to go outside. I did and then returned home put my hands in my pocket and no keys were there. I had locked myself out. Thankfully I was able to call on an angel who let me into the chapel where there is a spare kit. I had to wait a while though and as I did I sat and talked with a friend who was still there, they had been talking with someone. It was a beautiful evening. I also took a video of the gift, so moved by it all, my heart full to bursting. I was also laughing at my gormless self. I shared it with friends, passing on the generosity.
I awoke on Monday morning and beautiful morning it was. I shared a gift of “Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day, I’ve got a beautiful feeling, everything’s going my way”. I added a little extra about even if it isn’t all going my way, it still feels like a beautiful morning, a beautiful day. The truth is not everything is, but there is love and my heart feels filled with love. Perhaps a bit too filled it seems. I have noticed that the fuller the heart, the emptier the head. There are plusses and minuses to this. If your head is too empty, then you can too easily find yourself locked out of your own house and this can be an inconvenience for you and others. Yes, my heart was full, but my “gorm” was not. I was gormless and not gormful.
The week off I had enjoyed had done me the world of good. The last 12 months have been very full, a near perfect example of the blessings and curses that come with “Choosing Life”, to paraphrase good old Moses. There has been professional fulfilment too, as I get increasingly involved in helping to shape and develop future ministry. There have been personal and professional challenges, including so much grief. It has felt like too much at times. My mind has felt filled to bursting at times and this has left my heart almost empty. It’s a strange feeling to be filled up to brim with life and yet at the same time to feel almost empty in my being at the same time. A very strange paradox indeed. I know I am not alone. We need to find stillness and not be too full in order to fully function in our own lives, to feel alive.
I am reminded of a story of a university professor who visited a Japanese master to inquire about Zen. The professor began to ask questions while the master just sat quietly, listening. After a while the master began to pour tea into the professor’s cup. The cup soon filled up, but the master did not stop pouring. The tea soon began to spill over on to the table. Initially the professor just sat there in stunned silence, he did not know what to do. Eventually he could take no more and shouted out “It’s overfull. No more will go in!” The master stopped pouring and simply said “Like this cup you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”
It would appear that a full cup ,an overflowing cup, is not such a great thing. Whether it is filled with things or filled with fears. Well certainly this is true when it comes to our minds and perhaps our responsibilities and certainly our fears and anxieties.
That said the last few days have also reminded me of another image of an overflowing cup, that is a beautiful and vital thing.
The image comes from the 23rd Psalm.
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths
Of righteousness for his name sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley
Of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil:
For thou art with me.
Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou prepares a table before me
In the presence of mine enemies:
Thou anointest my head with oil;
My cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me,
All the days of my life:
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord
For ever.
The Psalms are attributed to King David. Here he sings of God as a shepherd who will see him safely through the Valley of Death. “Thou prepares a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.” In the psalm the overflowing cup is an excess of goodness, a symbol of abundance, a source of joy. Something you can never have too much of. Can you ever be too full of love?
I am reminded here of the gifts I was given, good old “Pooh Bear” and that cup of love and knowledge, this cup will no doubt be filled and poured out many times. A cup I will drink from, as will many others.
Two cups of contrasting meaning; two cups overflowing: One depicting a mind that is too full and therefore unable to focus or learn something new, or too full that is paralyses us with so much fear; the other depicting a cup overflowing with love that will enable us to live full loving lives, despite the very real troubles present.
Is there a contradiction here, is this a dilemma? Well only if you get lost in the metaphor, the curse of the literalist. The two images are of course depicting different aspects of our humanity.
The Zen story is describing the mind, whereas the Psalm is depicting the heart. It is talking of God’s infinite love. So yes, we can be full abundantly with love and yet still have a mind that is clear. Experience has revealed to me that it is the full heart that enables me to clear my mind and not a clear head that leads me to a full heart. By emptying my mind, I do not fill my heart and yet as my heart becomes full, my mind and soul do indeed begin to settle.
As I look back at my life, proved once again in the last few weeks, I can see clearly that it is when my heart is filled with love that my mind begins to clear. There have been times when my head has been so full that there just was no more room for anything else; times when my life was just too full and I couldn’t create space, when prayer and meditation was not enough. My head doesn’t spin these days, thank God, but I can still begin to not feel life again, as my body becomes detached from my soul.
This has happened again in recent months. I so needed last week. I needed to stop, my soul needed to catch up with my body. I needed to let my heart be filled; I needed to once again be touched by the joy of living, as I was in danger of becoming detached from life. Then there was last weekend and the love I was offered and gratefully received.
Love is one of those commodities that multiplies by subtraction, the more you give it away the more all receive as it encourages others to the same. I have borne witness to this all week long, in the people around me. I saw a wonderful example of anonymous generosity this week. Someone responding in love, but ensuring I didn’t know who it was. I believe that we can all live fully aware of the abundance that is open to us in life. We can live as though are cups were overflowing with abundant love. We can give our love freely. We can truly throw caution to the wind and live with true gracious abandon. I know that sounds some what awkward, but I know we can, we just need to be encouraged. We just need to encourage one another.
I do not believe that I am the only dreamer I am sure that you have all felt this at times. We have all felt full up with the abundance of life, if only for brief moments. We can trigger this in others too. It can begin with a smile at a stranger in the street. Or just by responding with spontaneity. I have talked many times of my belief in the chaos theory of compassion, the source of which is this abundant love that can be poured out from us all. I have seen proof of this once again in the last few days of my life.
The wonderful thing about this abundance is that unlike any other resource it is not finite it truly is infinite. The more we express it, the more we give it away, the more are cups are filled. The key is to share it extravagantly to pour it out onto one another.
That said you do need to be careful not to over do it too. I know I can exhaust myself. There is always need for balance in life. If your mind gets too full of things then you lose all sense of clarity and or connection. You find that you forget everything and lock yourself out of your house, like I did.
So you do need to have a clear mind, a cup that is not overly full in order to focus on what life is offering you. That said in order to do this you need an open heart, you need this to allow this abundant love to fill you up and to flow from you, to let it pour out into your life. We were all born to love.
So sing and rejoice abandon yourself to love and anoint one another regardless of the troubles that may come your way. Will it take all our troubles away. No, but it will bring love to life in our humble human being. Isn’t this the greatest gift of them all.
Please find below a video devotion based on the material in this "blogspot"
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