Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, December 6, 2007


Refuse to pander to a morbid interest in your own misdeeds.
Pick yourself up, be sorry, shake yourself, and go on again.

The direction and constancy of the will is what really matters,
and intellect and feeling are only important insofar as they contribute to that.

- Evelyn Underhill, poet, author, and philosopher of religion,
born on this day, 1875


Could it be possible that whoever wrote that song (“Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again”) had read Evelyn Underhill?? Stranger things have happened!

Ms. Underhill had a life I would like to have had. She was well educated, she was a teacher and spiritual counselor, she wrote. I’ve had some of that. It’s the other part I’d have liked. Her father and husband were great yachters - and she spent a lot of her life sailing the Mediterranean for months on end, enjoying the artistic treasures of France and Italy! Sigh.

She wrote a fine book, titled Mysticism. It is still read today.

I agree strongly with the first quote. Religion has often put too much emphasis on spending great amounts of time beating one’s breast and pandering to a morbid (good word) interest in one’s own misdeeds. This is not helpful. It’s just slacking. The whole point of knowing that one can honestly repent and be forgiven is to Get On With Life! My friend Connor+ said it nicely once to me, something like, “make a quick touch of the hand to the ground and move on”. Doing so would be the sign that one truly believes in the gift of Forgiveness. (This is why I always begin the Liturgy with the Confession – acknowledge our sin, but worship in the light of Grace.

I obviously owe, or have a connection with, Ms. Underhill. I have preached for decades that Love is 95% a matter of the will. That it has, or should have, little to do with feelings. And I believe that exercising the will ultimately has the power to heal hurt feelings. Love has become far too identified with how one feels in our cultures. Someone like Jesus didn’t choose Love unto Death because it “felt” good.

Accept your capacity for evil. Let it flit by quickly. Embrace new life. Shape and nurture the Will. Decide who you want to be and do.

Do it.

Brian+