The Heart!!

Written by: Kathy Zawacki

Photo by John Hain

For the last six months,

I have been intentionally exploring what this next season in the spiritual journey may look like - for myself but maybe also on a broader scale.

In retrospect, it appears the seeds of this transition have been growing under the surface for years but, as is often the case -

It was the process of walking through a very difficult time personally that broke this heart and mind open enough to let new light in.

It seems the big transition times of life are often there to pull us back (and up!) from what we have been immersed in allowing us to get a 10,000 foot view so we can see a bigger picture, learn and grow. It’s as though there is this standing invitation in the middle of the “storms” to stay open and look for the good that is emerging. What a gift!

I recently found myself thinking a lot about the practices of orthodoxy and orthopraxy. In short, we know orthodoxy as “right beliefs or thinking”. We know orthopraxy as “right behaviors or actions”. I kept feeling like both were missing something - that there was a third, primary element needed for the other two to flow authentically.

Then it hit me - THE HEART!!

I searched to see if there was a word that meant “right heart” and discovered “Orthocardia” - that was it! This was the language I had been seeking for years to describe the reality of “right” living from the inside out.

What if the order is: Orthocardia > Orthopraxy > Orthodoxy?

What if many of our religions have been practicing the reverse? Trying to think our way to right action and lifestyle and hoping, somehow, all of that effort will change our hearts. 

My observation over the years is:

We can think, speak and do all the “right” things and still have a cold, hard heart.

And we find ourselves never getting to what we really desire - a flourishing, loving, content, peaceful heart and the abundant life it supports regardless of circumstances.

What if the heart comes first and the rest follows?

It was prophesied hundreds of years before Jesus and affirmed after him that the day would come when God would displace our stony, stubborn hearts with tender, responsive hearts of flesh and write the ways of the Kingdom on those soft, pliable hearts. A promise was given that the Spirit of God would be placed within us to help us to live in this new way (Ezekiel 36:26-27, Jeremiah 31:33-34, Hebrews 8:7-12).

What if that day isn’t something we’re still waiting for? What if it came 2,000 years ago?

What if this is what Jesus came to usher in? To demonstrate what this looks like humanly and then deposit the ability (spirit) within us to discover this new heart and cultivate and grow it?

Could this be the “life and life abundant” Jesus said he came to bring? Could this be a path of restoration - of who we are and how we were originally designed to live in the garden - feasting on the Tree of Life?

Does emphasizing the reverse “ortho” order get in the way and send us back to the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil? Does that hold us bound to a covenant that has been displaced? Maybe Jesus’ life, death and resurrection was simply about opening the “Way” for anyone to experience a transformed heart and learn how to live from that place…

Could it be that orthocardia begins, not with doing, but by being still long enough to let it surface - not something we produce but rather discover? Could it be that there is a Divine presence within us doing the “work” and issuing a continual invitation for us to open up and let it emerge?

Might it be helpful, as we engage with our hearts, to let go of the purse of our opinions and stockpile of judgements?

Could that be what it means to be poor in spirit? That kind of “poverty” seems like a delightfully free and peaceful life. Is this the “rest” Jesus was offering to all who are weary and heavy laden?

As I’ve continued to contemplate these things inwardly, the following thought keeps repeating: Trust the internal eternal.

Many have been afraid of relying on and following wisdom from our innermost being and have run the other direction in distrust.

Others have embraced the concept of this internal wisdom but attempted to harness and control it for personal gain.

What if we learn how to simply let it “be” and guide us into a “way of being” in every part of our lives - every day - every moment?

Orthodoxy and Orthopraxy flowing from and with Orthocardia in a loop of thriving life.