Heart and love.

10 Feb Heart and love.

HEART:

1. The vital center and source of one’s being, emotions, and sensibilities.
2. The repository of one’s deepest and sincerest feelings and beliefs.
3. The seat of the intellect or imagination.
4. Emotional constitution, basic disposition, or character.
5. One’s prevailing mood or current inclination.
6. Capacity for sympathy or generosity; compassion.
7. Love; affection.
8. Courage; resolution; fortitude.
9. The firmness of will or the callousness required to carry out an unpleasant task or responsibility
10. A person esteemed or admired as lovable, loyal, or courageous.
11. The central or innermost physical part of a place or region.
12. The core; the most important or essential part.

In historical, religious texts the heart has been ascribed mystical significance, often believed to have spiritual or divine attributes…In Egyptian mythology, the heart portion of the soul is weighed against the feather of truth. It is not known (to me) whether being heavier or lighter is good. Since having a heavy heart is sullen…let’s say (for the sake of my purposes) that the lighter the better.

What if someone weighed your heart? Would it be heavy or light?

Tonight I was on my way to have dinner with a friend. I was sitting in the turning lane of a very busy intersection when the light turned green, but only a few cars moved. Eventually, I noticed that there was a car sitting diagonal in the lane to my left. It was not moving. Suddenly, a man that I had previously been unable to see, was pushing the car. Before I knew it two more people appeared at the man’s side to push the car out of the intersection. Everyone else stopped, without laying on their horns, and positioned themselves to make it easier for this car to get out of the way. When it had been safely maneuvered to a parking lot the man and woman (who had not belonged to the non-functioning car…)ran to their own vehicles, jumped in, and off they went.

In the amount of time it took for me to register what happened these people had gotten out. Acted. And the problem was solved.

The Bystander Effect is a social phenomenon that proposes the more people that are around, the less likely someone is to respond to a situation. I have not only been a part of this effect before in my life, but witnessed it multiple times. It’s incredible. What’s even more incredible is when someone does act.

A lot of heart? (a lot of heart equates to a light heart…I know. Just go with it.) I think so.

Being the counseling type, I generally have a lot of faith in people. I think that people can change. I believe the world is your playground and you make it what you want. I think that people are generally nice and not self-serving (although this is often proven false, yet I cling to the belief.) I think people want to help and want to be better (regardless of if they actually present this as reality to me). I also think that people want things to work out for not just themselves, but those around them that they care about as well. I’m optimistic. However, some days I lose that. My optimism for society as a whole becomes obstructed by my own personal feelings of injustice (towards myself or others). Generally speaking, this consistently happens on days I have to commute. Traffic brings out the worst in people (at least it does for me) time after time. I think ATL is particularly crazy…and I don’t believe that is simply my personal opinion. Anyways, today happened to be one of those days. But God reminded me of the beauty he has placed in the world tonight.

On my way to meet my friend (before the car incident), I passed by a house that was completely open with big, front windows and all the lights were on. I noted how welcoming it looked with warm light pouring out from it’s seams. Right as I passed by I saw and elderly man with a walker hobbling down his hallway. Directly to his right and supporting his back was a nurse. I saw no one else in the home. My heart broke. For some reason older people have always made me sad. I commended the woman on what incredible strength and heart it must take to work with the elderly.

Everyday I witness “heart” and love and compassion in it’s most simple form from those around me at school. I know…we’re a more emotional bunch, but we’re not super-human–susceptible to the same imperfections, pettiness, stupidity, rudeness, and crudeness as anyone else. But…there is something in the air there. (Maybe it’s because Jesus is in the building…just sayin’.) It is not uncommon for someone to ping your emotional state at the drop of the hat and create a space for you to release the inner tension. It takes some real genuineness to do that. People ask questions and simply love on one another unlike anything I have seen before…I can’t say that I hate it.

And on a more interesting note…the other day JCM was talking to me about his classes at Georgia Tech. Generally I don’t get too involved in any of these conversations simply because I can contribute nothing to them for my lack of comprehension. But the other day he was excited about something that had finally clicked in his mind. I believe he was talking about Differential Equations and Calculus. My handy friend Wikipedia defines a differential equation as a mathematical equation for an unknown function of one or several variables that relate the values of the function itself and its derivatives of various orders. Got that, my friend? Of course you do because you are so smart. Regardless…he made a statement about seeing God in calculus…it’s God’s love language, of course. I chuckled and thought…”Well, yes…He did create it.” I mean…it takes heart to do calculus and differential equations all day.

Isn’t it incredible how we are all formed from the same incredible God, but with our own personal God signature…uniquely and incredibly designed with a piece of his heart and a piece of his love language.

A friend today told me music is one of his 700 love languages…I wonder how many God has? Woah.

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day coming up this next week…I would like to say “Happy loving to you.” I hope that you not only feel deeply loved but give unselfish love everyday you have the opportunity (not just a few special holidays out of the year). I hope that you feel whatever it is you are involved in on a daily basis is important and is special because you have been given the heart to do it. (I also pray that if you feel your “heart” is being wasted you find the opportunity to revise your situation.) I hope that your heart is inspired and nurtured by those around you…always.

To the lonely, the heartbroken, the giddy, the confused, the in love, the newlywed, the couple in transition, the confident single, the no-so-confident single, the engaged, the elderly, the middle-aged, the young, the young at heart, the aging, the distraught, the passionate, the excited, to friends, to lovers, to spouses, to children, to grandparents, to ex-lovers, to family…may your days be filled with more love than you can imagine. May you recognize it. May you embrace it. May you appreciate it. May you return it…greater than you received it. For your heart…and the love you share from it…is the “core; the most important or essential part” of life.