More than a brain with legs

 

Yesterday, I invited you to practice paying attention and setting your intention toward being open to and receiving God’s love.  How did that go?  Seriously.  Some of you are thinking, wait that was an actual assignment?  Can you give homework in mediations?  If all we do is think about love or stay too much in our heads contemplating love, we might get cut off from experiencing love.  You are more than a brain with legs.  Yes, your mind matters.  Yes, your intellect is important…but so is your heart, hands, and feet.  In the West, since the Enlightenment, we tend to over-emphasize our mind.  If we just think about it or dream it, we can do it.  The formula for success is ~ think it plus do it plus will power equals fame and fortune.  But life is messier than that.  You have emotions and soul and relationships and societal forces that all get thrown into the stew of your life.  To be love, we are invited to explore and experience love with our full self.  To put on a white laboratory coat this Lent and experiment with the mystery of your life.  What does loving God fully mean for you ~ intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, in your flesh and breath life?  This is not a one and done question, but one we must return to time and time again.  Just because we have the “right” answer doesn’t mean it will make a difference right away and forever and ever.  Knowing and doing are two different actions in our life.  The lawyer gives the right answer.  You can memorize this short verse of scripture and it can get caged in the cognitive cobwebs of your mind never to see the light of day in your words or actions or presence.  To come back to this verse about loving God and neighbor every day and set your attention and intention on how/who/when and where you pray for strength of the spirit to embody these words in your human size self (which is to say, I won’t do it perfectly, but in my beautifully imperfect way with God’s grace something sacred might stir).  Let loose these words from your head to heart to hands and feet this day.  May God’s love fill you to the brim of your soul to overflow to others.  Amen.