The Saturday Stoke #44
Listen to The Stoke
A battle rages for your soul. The powers that be vie for your attention and when they seize your attention, they have your eyes, and your eyes are the portals to your heart. They know that if they can flood your attention with sugary sweet images, cliche stories, and the quick-fix that is the train wreck of reality television, they have you.
Every person deals with it. And every person makes a decision: I will either put this into my heart, or I will seek something else, something better for me, something that actually nourishes my soul.
Just like sugary foods and drinks give nothing to our bodies but a desire for more, a lust for the sugar rush, so to does the junk food we consume with our eyes and ears render nothing to our souls. The problem is, we’ve stopped asking questions about the amusements with which we fill our hearts. We’ve stopped considering their long-term affect on our souls.
“But Tim,” you say, “so what if I like to sit back and take a load off and watch something that, well, you know, that is quite mindless. There’s no unwritten rule that says I can’t relax my mind.”
“Ah yes,” I reply, “quite right. And far be it from me to yoke you with guilt. Of course you can relax your body and mind. Indeed, I do this myself. All I’m really saying—and I am more lecturing myself than anyone, here—is to live aware of this battle and to remind all of us, myself included, to fill our hearts with visuals, sounds, and actions that nourish our souls.”
Spiritual malnourishment can creep up on us. We must be vigilant so that we can be people of gentle and humble heart, as C.S. Lewis liked to say.
Here’s a quick hack for nourishing our souls
Flood your life with beauty; your eyes with nourishment that touches your soul. Listen for the transcendent, the lovely, the pure. Don’t use the world’s moment—this pandemic and perceived unrest—to give up on all that is good and true and wonderful to behold.
Read a classic novel. Listen to Bach. Gaze upon a Turner, read Wordsworth out loud with family and friends. Dive into a hard book, take music lessons, learn a new language. Join heaven in the rejoicing, the hallelujah of life of logos of wonder.
Take a walk in the rain, laugh at something silly, tickle your kids, tickle your spouse, dance, sing, wake with the dawn and sing by yourself in the woods, on a field, in your car.
Beauty will indeed save the world. And you and I can live as Beauty’s ambassadors, participating in the holy tapestry God has created and called us to.
Stay stoked, my friends.
What is the stoke, you ask?
Read where the the name comes from, and the intent of these short posts.
