The Gale in the Breeze. Breathing Life into an Integrated Heart.
A strong wind can topple trees and devastate communities. A gentle breeze can refresh and relieve an insufferable heat. A breath of air can carry words that wound or heal. Life was breathed into the lungs once clay and animated humanity in the image and likeness of God. With the Fall of Man and Original Sin, living in the human condition can often feel like a ship tossed by the storm at night, or marooned in a vast sea of nothingness.
We can feel at war within ourselves: the tempest in the whisper.
“For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.”
Sound familiar?
For most of us, it rings true. For want or for wont, for weal or for woe, we do the things that are contrary to our beliefs, our needs, or even our health, that may even seem reasonable at the moment. This dichotomy of being pulled in different directions, preceded or followed by fear, pain, wounds, worry, regret, or resentment, is a sign of a fractured heart. It is a life of internal conflict, frustration, and a painful lack of an integrated heart, where our outward actions do not match our inward selves.
The heart made whole is a movement away from this painful fragmentation, the collecting of the pieces, and refashioning them anew.
“Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset.”
A person with an integrated heart is not superhuman, without sin or potential for mistakes. They are whole not because they are perfect, but because they are authentic, honest with themselves.
What, then, determines whether we live in a state of chaos or a state of harmony? It often comes down to our internal posture.
Are we living in a Reactive state, where we are driven by our wounds and impulses, losing our ability to consent to our choices freely?
Or are we Striving, making a grace-filled, intentional effort to choose our actions in alignment with the good consciously?
This movement from a reactive life to a life of intentional striving is the path to an integrated heart. It is the hard, noble work of cooperating with God's grace to become the whole and healed person He created us to be.
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
See the Full Framework
Leaning into Hope is the first step; there is a way through our struggles. Then, we must understand the tension between a reactive and striving self. But what does this look like in practice? How do these dynamics interact with our relationship with ourselves and our relationship with God?
To help you see this with even greater clarity, I have created a visual framework that maps out these states of the heart. You can see a complete diagram and learn more about the Four Stances of the Heart in the free introductory guide, The Integrated Heart: A Framework for Wholeness, by clicking the link below.
