Message from the Chaplain

Defy Gravity

“I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.   And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees” (Ezekiel 36:27)

If you enjoy watching professional contemporary dance then Youtube, ‘Lost in Motion Guillaume Cote’. Guillaume is the Principal Dancer of the Canadian National Ballet.  The short Youtube clip begins with his walking nonchalantly onto a stage. He then reveals an extraordinary expression of life, agility and grace.  When I first watched it, I thought I heard God’s voice in the distance saying; ‘that’s what I was talking about!’

Guillaume seems to defy gravity. By contrast, at times I carry my body through the day. I suspect that this is not an uncommon experience. There are expressions enough to suggest as much: life is a drag; the weight of the world; life’s a burden. For as long as we fight the feeling of life being a burden, it will remain a burden. Put another way, sometimes we worry, I know I worry and that I ought not to worry but because I can’t help but worry, I worry because I worry. You can replace “worry” with ‘hurt’. Sometimes we are burdened by external factors: another cloudless sky, a certain work colleague or joyless routine. It weighs us down and it has the potential to turn our very hearts to stone.

Know this: constricted life of existence is not life as God intends for you. God gave humanity dance and song and heart. Life has been given to humanity in such abundance that we can transcend life itself. How? At risk of sounding ‘new age’, step outside, stand still and watch. Just watch. Observe. Do not process with questions of why. Do not ‘pathologise’ what you feel. Do not label, judge or evaluate. Just watch. Allow your spirit the chance to catch up with your body.

At work, perhaps you can watch what you are doing by way of reaction to others. Watch. Why do you feel so heavy? In reality, all that you see out in front of you is inside your head. Watch and your own nature will begin to take care of itself. You will feel your body letting go and a weight lifting from within.

The Prophet Ezekiel realised this in his own way. He said ‘let God remove your hearts of stone and replace them with hearts of flesh’.  People with hearts of flesh see the Divine within the mundane, they watch His grace at work in creation, they recognise the trogs in life for who they are, they watch with hearts that see. They do not allow things to weigh them down.

Let’s be thankful for the Guillaume’s of the world who remind us to defy gravity.

Phil Worrad

Chaplain