Follow the (Your) Thread

The heart is the center of our being and our most comprehensive cognitive faculty. The eye of the heart sees more truly than our ego-based intellect and emotions. With such a heart, true surrender, and true happiness and well-being, become possible.

— Kabir Helmiski, The Knowing Heart

I recently found the following “thread” language in a chapter of Diane M. Millis’ book, Conversation―The Sacred Art: Practicing Presence in an Age of Distraction (The Art of Spiritual Living) — and I knew they would resonate deeply with our community. You see, we’ve had this longstanding shared value of listening. We want to be a people who consider our lives — who listen to one another — and who are present.

Consider the following questions, and take special note of why you think these resonate (or reveal dissonance) with you.

• What is the thread you are following?
• At what point in your life did you become consciously aware that you were following a thread (e.g. a divine thread, a thread of meaning purpose, a calling)?
• Have other people ever wondered about what you are pursuing? To whom have you explained the thread? What happened as a result?
• Have you ever let go of the thread? If so, what happened? And when, if at all, did you regain hold of it?
• Who in your life has encouraged you to hold on to your thread in the midst of challenges/despair? How did they assist you?

Wow, right? I mean, this is something to ponder. I hope you will take time in silence . . . thinking through each of these amazing questions. What stirred in you as you read the questions? Did anything come to mind as what your thread?

We talked about — as a community — that this ‘thread’ language is more than listening to emotions. It is more than lining up the reasonable and rational option. This is paying attention to emotions and logic, but also listening for something deeper.

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.

— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

This kind of thinking, the need to listen — or see that which is deeper, is at the heart, is invisible — got me thinking about the temptations of Christ. These temptations have been curious to me over the years. Sometimes I’ve fallen into writing them off as so much less than actual temptations. And yet, these days, I tend to read them with a sense of empathy.

Consider the stroy.

The Story of Christ from Matthew (chapter 4)

Next Jesus was taken into the wild by the Spirit for the Test. The Devil was ready to give it. Jesus prepared for the Test by fasting forty days and forty nights. That left him, of course, in a state of extreme hunger, which the Devil took advantage of in the first test: “Since you are God’s Son, speak the word that will turn these stones into loaves of bread.”

Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy: “It takes more than bread to stay alive. It takes a steady stream of words from God’s mouth.”

For the second test the Devil took him to the Holy City. He sat him on top of the Temple and said, “Since you are God’s Son, jump.” The Devil goaded him by quoting Psalm 91: “He has placed you in the care of angels. They will catch you so that you won’t so much as stub your toe on a stone.”

Jesus countered with another citation from Deuteronomy: “Don’t you dare test the Lord your God.”

For the third test, the Devil took him to the peak of a huge mountain. He gestured expansively, pointing out all the earth’s kingdoms, how glorious they all were. Then he said, “They’re yours — lock, stock, and barrel. Just go down on your knees and worship me, and they’re yours.”

Jesus’ refusal was curt: “Beat it, Satan!” He backed his rebuke with a third quotation from Deuteronomy: “Worship the Lord your God, and only him. Serve him with absolute single-heartedness.”

The Test was over. The Devil left. And in his place, angels! Angels came and took care of Jesus’ needs.

• In what ways can you imagine it making perfect sense to go down the roads of these temptations.
• How do these temptations appeal to logic and reason?
• How do these temptations stir a positive emotional response?
• How do the temptations differ from the thread?
• Consider how many ways we see a getting off track in this story?

In each of these temptations, we talked as a community, the reality that you could make an emotional and rational case for each of them to be yielded to. Bread, in light of being so insanely hungry, is it that big of a deal to just eat? I could see this being an okay rationale. And certainly a level of hangry could make emotional sense. And yet, Jesus was willing to listen to something deeper — at his heart — that his thread would be compromised in such a choice.

Jumping from the temple — wouldn’t this validate any self-doubt? I mean, just a swan dive off of the temple roof would ensure an angelic rescue that would ocne again affirm that Jesus was who he believed himself to be — both to the witnessing crowd and to himself. Was their ever a time where the dove from heaven at his baptism might have not quite been enough validation of his thread? Maybe? And if people saw the miracle and believed — wouldn’t that be helpful? I can see the rationale. And the emotion — maybe of just wanting to show the devil that he WAS who he believed himself to be.

Then there is the immediacy of becoming ruler of the kingdom in the moment. Get it all, have people worship the Father, right now. Without the sacrifice. Without the torture. Without the pain and suffering. Logic, check. Emotions, check. It all makes sense. But it wasn’t the thread Jesus was following. It wasn’t matching up with his deep understanding at a heart level. And so he banishes the tempations and the tempter — to live HIS unique thread.

The imagery of the Sacred Heart has stuck with me for a long time now. Something about the heart, engulfed in flames, along with the sacrifical imagery of the crown of thorns — has had deep meaning. It is something that reminds me to live with purpose, with passion, and to listen to life with a deep awareness.

I don’t want to make this sound idealistic though. Yes, it is. But I also think it’s something we can live — I hope it is something that can be a real world and present way of seeing our life.

When we ask, “Am I following with my heart?” we discover that no one can define for us exactly what our path should be. Instead, we must allow the mystery and beauty of this question to resonate within our being. Then somewhere within us an answer will come and understanding will arise. If we are still and listen deeply, even for a moment, we will know if we are following the path with heart…We can actually converse with our heart as if it were a good friend.

— Jack Kornfield

To check our lives by our thread is to discern not only in the big decisions, the fork in the road moments — but it is also about daily filtering our lives through that which we understand to be our thread.

DISCERNMENT — to separate, distinguish, determine, & to sort out

In discernment we are invited to attend to our feelings, our thoughts, and our desires. Discernment is “sifting through” our inner and outer experience to determine their origin — whether they are the voice of our ego (our limited self) or the Spirit. — Diane M. Millis

I think one of the things that came out of our conversation tonight was summed up at the end. Yes, what your thread is matters — but we can often get so bogged down on getting it “right” that we fear moving forward; or we regret our lack of thread or a changing thread; but in the end, the deepest value may just be listening to our lives.

Be a listener.

And we can trust that as we take on readily the posture of listening, everything else will be okay. It’s better to live with intention — and adjust it as we go than to never be sensitive enough to listen at all.

I encourage you to return to the top and look again at the questions Millis poses. Sit with them this week (and long after). Sit with them until you can articulate your thread, share your thread, and continue to return to your thread.