The Overflow of Our Hearts - March 9
Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 78:1-39; PM Psalm 78:40-72; Jer. 7:21-34; Rom. 4:13-25; John 7:37-52
Today’s Reflection
On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.”’ Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified. —John 7: 37-39
As a professor, I had a long course policy statement that preceded the syllabus of what we would read and discuss on which days. Besides the usual policies on academic honesty, accommodations for learning differences, excused absences, and late work, I also included a section at the end the document which I titled, “Good studentship and getting the most out of COMM _____.” The final bullet points in this list of what I recommended as best practices for being a good student were these (through the miracle of saving documents in the cloud, I have copied and pasted these directly from one of my course syllabi).
Education is a joint effort of professors and students; it is not merely filling your “empty cup” with whatever the professor says. While you certainly should try to learn from your professors, remember that you, ultimately, may be your own greatest teacher.
Bottom line: Learning requires your time and effort if it is to be meaningful and lasting.
I used this imagery of (not) filling your empty cup to encourage my students to understand that learning is not a one-way process. I did not see teaching as a way of just pouring out my knowledge and experience into the students’ minds. Rather, I wanted students to understand that they, too, brought something valuable to the process of learning. As I wrote then, and still believe now, education is a joint effort. I bring something to the conversation, and you bring something to the conversation, and in so doing we can both learn something from one another and grow together in that experience.
Water imagery is common throughout our Holy Scriptures. Just last week I wrote a reflection on broken cisterns and flowing fountains in response to a passage from the prophet Jeremiah. In today’s Gospel passage from John 7, we hear Jesus offering an invitation for people to come to him and to believe in him, couched in metaphoric language of offering refreshment to those who thirst. Jesus in framing himself as a source of living water, a spring from which those who believe will always be able to turn to sustain their lives.
But just after this, Jesus cites a scripture that says this: “‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.”’ I take this to mean that, just as we are refreshed and sustained by the living waters of Jesus—and, as Jesus was foreshadowing at that time, also by the Holy Spirit—we, in turn, are meant to refresh and sustain others with the overflow of our hearts. When we are sustained by God’s living water, we can then offer life-giving refreshment and sustenance to others.
You probably remember learning about the water cycle at some point in your schooling, whether the simple version we learn in elementary school science class or a more complex version in a university-level ecology course. But the basic point is the same: Water is meant to move through the system. Water that stays in one place for too long grows stagnant, and when it does it tends to promote disease and rot rather than health and growth. In contrast, water that moves and flows promotes life. Recall Canticle 10, the Second Song of Isaiah (Isaiah 55: 6-11), which we often pray in together in Morning Prayer:
For as rain and snow fall from the heavens
and return not again, but water the earth,
Bringing forth life and giving growth,
seed for sowing and bread for eating,
So is my word that goes forth from my mouth;
it will not return to me empty;
But it will accomplish that which I have purposed,
and prosper in that for which I sent it (BCP 87).
Rain and snow come down from the sky to water the earth—and when they do, they promote life and growth, “seed for sowing and bread for eating.” The bread then sustains the people who eat it, who then will collect more water to nourish their plants, to produce more food, to sustain more people.
Jesus wanted his followers to be clear that while he is indeed the eternally flowing fountain that renews and sustains us all, he wants us to keep these waters flowing. The overflow of our hearts has the potential, as Isaiah put it, to bring forth life and give growth to our fellow human beings. The life of faith, like education, is “a joint effort” in mutual growth, encouragement, and refreshment.
—Becky+
Questions for Self-Reflection
Imagine ways that “rivers of living water” can flow from your heart and into the lives of others. Reflect on ways to make this metaphoric language into a concrete action.
Daily Challenge
Commit to praying Canticle 10, the Second Song of Isaiah, at least once a day this week as you begin to reflect on how you will seek to bring forth life and give growth to the people in your life.