1 July 10, 2011 THE SET OF THE SAILS Paul Eckman is an

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July 10, 2011
THE SET OF THE SAILS
Paul Eckman is an American psychologist who was voted a couple years ago one of Time
magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world. Eckman has risen to that rank in part due
to his research on emotion – or emotions I should say. Most of his life’s research has focused
upon the emotions that human beings experience and how those emotions are revealed in our
facial expressions. In his study of emotions Dr. Eckman has been able to categorize six basic
emotions that human beings feel. And those six are these: Fear, Anger, Disgust, Sadness,
Surprise and Happiness. If we are going to feel anything … what we feel will likely fall into
one of those categories of emotions: Fear, Anger, Disgust, Sadness, Surprise and Happiness.
Now the interesting thing about these six human emotions is that four of them are
negative: Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness. One is neutral – Surprise … you can be pleasantly
surprised or negatively surprised. And only one is positive – happiness. One sixth of the
emotions that humans can feel is purely positive. Two thirds are negative. If we are bound to
feel some way over the course of our lives – we are bound to feel bad. Fear, Anger, Disgust and
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Sadness tip the scale toward humans feeling bad. Now usually each of these bad emotions is
related to our response to the outside world. We fear something will happen to us. We are
angry that something has happened to us. We are disgusted by what we have seen and heard.
And we are sad because of our perception of the way things are. Human beings are wired to be
responsive to external stimuli and external stimuli is often felt as a threat … as an unwelcome
intruder. And so the result is we are likely to feel afraid, angry, disgusted or sad.
Now there is another scientist – a neuroscientist – named Richard Davidson – another one
of Time’s 100 most influential people – who has focused his research of the brain on the
question of whether we can train our brains to feel one emotion over the other. Particularly Dr.
Davidson has been curious to see whether we can exercise our brains in such a way – like we
would exercise the rest of our bodies – to tip the balance away from the negative emotion to the
positive emotion of happiness.
It’s called Neuroplasticity. Is the brain malleable enough to take our hard wiring and
rewire it so that the current of emotion changes from negative to positive? And what Dr.
Davidson has done is that he has researched the brains of spiritually contemplative people –
monks in particular – those who commit their lives to an almost unending practice of
contemplating the divine – and has found that their systematic contemplative practice – the
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daily exercise of concentrating on the beauty and wonder of God -- actually changes their brain
functions such that they are able to experience to a larger degree the emotion of happiness.
That even when the external world is sending a negative message, or if we are inside a negative
situation – the brain is still able to continue to experience the emotion of happiness.
How we feel has al lot to do with how we think.
Maybe it is the conclusion that the apostle Paul came to long before there was a science
called Neuroscience … long before they could take pictures of the brain … long before they
thought about the six emotions – the apostle Paul writes from a Roman prison – an external
world, mind you, that was bound to create some negative emotion – he writes to the Philippians
and says, “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, Rejoice … in everything by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God,
which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus …
whatever is true then, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is
pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, and if there is anything worthy
of praise, think about these things.”
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Now lest we think that this is some ancient guy telling us in his ancient way to simply
“put on a happy face” – listen to what Paul says – he seems to understand what the great
mystics and contemplatives have understood over the ages … and what scientists are just
beginning to figure out today – “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just,
whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and
if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
He doesn’t say – “When things go bad, flip on the happy switch.” He says, “No, how
you respond to the conditions around you … will be determined largely by what you have been
thinking all along. And what you have been thinking all along is governed by how intentional
you are over the things you’re thinking about. ” And it allows him to say at the end of
Philippians 4 – “I have learned to be content with whatever I have.”
It could have been some help to those disciples out there on the boat in the Sea of Galilee.
Mark tells us that Jesus and the disciples get into a boat to cross the Sea and all of a sudden a
windstorm arose … and the whitecaps formed and the water started to swamp … and they were
straining with their oars – and they are getting panicked. And they are afraid. And they are
angry. And they are disgusted. And they are sad. And they are surprised. They are all those
things … but what they’re not is happy. They are not happy.
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But Jesus is happy. At least happy enough to stay sleeping in the boat. We could say he
was a deep sleeper, but I think Mark the storyteller wants us to see that the sleeping Jesus is
content. He is not afraid or angry. He is resting. He is at peace.
And the disciples say – “Yo Jesus (I’m not sure that’s the precise Greek translation) don’t
you care? Don’t you get it? Don’t you understand that you are supposed to be afraid with us.
You are supposed to be angry with us. You are supposed to be disgusted with us!”
“No,” says Jesus, “because I’ve been thinking. I’ve been thinking. I’ve been thinking
about whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is
pleasing, whatever is commendable, whatever is excellent, whatever is worthy of praise. These
are the things I am thinking.” Jesus’ response to the storm is conditioned by his thought
pattern. The external conditions are not determining how he feels.
Now I know what you are thinking – you’re thinking that when there’s a storm at sea
Jesus is not the guy you want with you in the boat. You want an oarsman. You want a
seasoned sailor. You want somebody swift of foot. You want someone who is going to worry
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and be afraid and do something about it. You don’t want anyone sleeping!! But Jesus lies there
idle.
Eugene Peterson reminds us of a scene in Moby Dick – it is one of those scenes where the
crew of the Pequod is giving chase to the great mammoth whale. Captain Ahab is barking
orders. Sailors are dashing across the deck. The cosmic conflict between good and evil is
joined. The demonic sea monster meets the morally outraged man. But there is one man on the
crew who lies perfectly still. He has no oar in his hand, no lines to pull, no wheel to steer, no
sails to trim. He is still in the midst of chaos. He is the harpooner. He is quiet and poised and
waiting. And Melville writes this sentence: “To insure the greatest efficiency in the dart, the
harpooners of this world must start to their feet out of idleness, and not out of toil.”
Now none of us like that word idleness. Maybe you do, but I sure don’t. I like activity. I
like getting up and doing things. I like taking matters into my own hands. I don’t like idleness.
I don’t like sitting around. Sitting around is for sissies. I like go, go, go. But you know, go, go,
go, doesn’t get me thinking about the things that are true, and honorable and just and pure and
pleasing and commendable and excellent and worthy of praise. The hardwire doesn’t get
rewired because I’ve left no time to do the rewiring.
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Do you ever stop to think about all the things you think about?
So the Casey Anthony trial is over. The verdict has been delivered. The defendant has
been acquitted. And one wonders about the time spent thinking about these things. The time
spent talking about these things. The time spent pondering over these things. How much of it
was honorable, pure and pleasing? The same could be said about all sorts of things like the
Super Bowl. Like the economy. Like the Cooking Channel. Like the Bachelorette. Like Law
and Order. Like, God forbid, a University of Michigan football game. Like the war in Iraq and
Afganistan.
You see there is so much that wants to take us away from the thinking and the pondering
and the praying and the glorifying. So much that wants to keep us afraid and angry and sad
and disgusted.
This is the struggle that the people of God encountered when they went back to Palestine.
They have their heads on straight. They know that if anything is going to get built – the first
thing to build is the temple. Because it is in the temple that we think about God. It is in the
temple that we read and listen to the word of God. It is in the temple that we consider the things
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of God. Because God is goodness. God is the author of every good and perfect gift. God is the
source of honor and purity and justice and excellence. So we go to the temple to worship and
to pray and to ponder the things of God. Because here is where our peace is. Here is where our
joy is. Here is where our happiness is.
But there are these forces around Jerusalem. There are these enemies around Jerusalem.
And they want to pull the people of Israel away from the temple. Away from worship. Away
from thinking of the honorable and the just and the pure. There are forces that want them afraid
and angry and sad. Because that’s what life is, isn’t it? Life is filled with all these windstorms.
All these gales. All these whitecaps. And we strain at the oars. But it’s in the church where
we find Jesus. It’s in the hull of the ship that we find Jesus. And in Jesus we find peace … and
contentment and joy and power. But we say to ourselves now is not the time to spend with
Jesus. Now is not the time to spend with Jesus. Let’s wait for the storm to subside. Let’s wait
for the wind to die down.
But we know that the wind never dies down. We know that. We know that the calendar
never really clears. We know that the phone never stops ringing. We know that. And if we
wait for all that to happen before we turn to Jesus … before we start building the temple …
before we make the time to think about the things of honor and purity and justice – well then …
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we never do … and guess what … the emotions of our life … stay on the minus side. Fear and
anger and sadness and disgust … they win the day.
It was back in 1960 that a federal judge ordered the white schools of New Orleans to
allow African-American children to attend. Great conflict arose. Hate and anger and fear filled
the papers and the streets and the radios and the T.V.’s. And so it fell on little 6 year old Ruby
Bridges to be the only African-American child to attend the William T. Frantz School. So
outside the front door of the school were lined hundreds of people uttering all the words of fear
and anger and hate and disgust. But little Ruby seemed oblivious to it all as she walked to the
front door of the school escorted by Federal Marshals. All the child psychologists met with her
to see what lasting damage all this was having on the poor young girl. But Ruby seemed happy.
She seemed content. She seemed like a young girl of fortune. One day her teacher saw her
approach the school again barraged by epithets unrepeatable in a sermon. And the teacher
watched as Ruby stopped and she began speaking. She began speaking in the face of all this
venom poured upon her. When she got in the school the teacher asked Ruby what she was
speaking about with all those hateful people. She said, “Oh, I was just praying. I was just
praying.” What were you praying about, Ruby? “Oh, I was praying for them. My Sunday
School teacher told me that they need praying for. So I prayed for them. I prayed for God to
help them.”
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How we feel is determined largely by how we think.
Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is
pleasing, whatever is commendable, whatever is excellent, whatever is worthy of praise …
think about these things.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox put it this way:
But to every mind there openeth,
A way, and way, and away,
A high soul climbs the highway,
And the low soul gropes the low,
And in between on the misty flats,
The rest drift to and fro.
But to every man there openeth,
A high way and a low,
And every mind decideth,
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The way his soul shall go.
One ship sails East,
And another West,
By the self-same winds that blow,
'Tis the set of the sails
And not the gales,
That tells the way we go.
Like the winds of the sea
Are the waves of time,
As we journey along through life,
'Tis the set of the soul,
That determines the goal,
And not the calm or the strife.