The line between good and evil runs not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago

The old adage—“What has your heart, has you”—rings as true today as it did in the beginning…of this moment, of your life, and of time.

Your heart interpenetrates and connects the outer you (i.e., body, mind, and spiritual expression) to the inner you (i.e., the Being that you are) and it is designed to connect that which is above to that which is below. Your heart was not designed to be a hall of mirrors, a reflection chamber of struggle and suffering, rather, it was created as the means by which your life might reveal glory unto glory.

Your heart is the connecting link between the “invisible” patterns, the Logos of so-called heaven and the “visible” earth. Without your heart, your body, mind, and capacity for spiritual expression are disconnected from the machinery of reality. Moreover, if you use your heart incorrectly, your life will be lived in vain, no matter how hard you may try to be a “good” person.

You were not designed to spend your life reacting to the world around you while searching for meaning and trying to be good. Rather, you were designed to live radiantly, to create…to let love radiate without concern for results. Creation, you see, is more about letting than trying.

Likewise, the corollary adage—“You move in the direction of your response”—determines your trajectory and velocity in any given moment. Your heart is a receptor of sorts, an antenna. You “tune” your heart, direct your antenna, by virtue of that which you give weight in your experience over time.

Pessimists have trained their hearts to lock onto and expect the worst in the word around them. Pessimism is a form of prejudice, a prejudgment based on precedent that slaps the symbolic “the hand of God” as it comes reaching down through the “clouds of heaven.” Pessimists doubt and nullify creative outcomes.

Optimists, on the other hand, run the risk of reverse prejudice. They overlook the limitations, expect a miracle, and often miss their opportunities to bring the full force and effect of heaven into the earth of their experience. Optimists are a voyeur of sorts, quasi-participants in the process of creation.

The key to creative living lies not in expectation, but in attention. “You move in the direction of your response.” Response is the deliberate investment of attention in something and your mind’s eye is the curator of your heart’s field of vision. Heart and mind must work together to either to be effective. Following your heart is a fool’s errand, as your heart on its own receives all types of signals. Your mind must tune, filter, select from that which is perceived by the heart. Both heart and mind play a role in shaping your attention.

If you concern yourself with things you dislike or detest, if you obsess about that which is wrong with the world, wrong with your life, etc., if you spend your time trying to fill the absences you feel or see, you will multiply those troubles. “That which has your heart has you.” If, on the other hand, you deliberately marshal your attention upon that for which you are thankful, that which gives evidence of the highest and finest in yourself, others, and the word around you, and that which is whole, wholesome, holy, and true, you will magnify the same in the earth of your experience.

The redirection of your attention, your habits or patterns of response takes time, but remember, if you’re doing it correctly it is not a struggle. Your body, mind, and capacity for spiritual expression were literally designed to this end. Let your attention shift, “Let not your heart be troubled,” “Let there be light.” See the pattern? So let it be!