Shalom is literally the reality of God’s kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy being expressed in your life.

I hate those who have a divided heart, but your law do I love. Psalm 119:119

So this verse is the Refrain for the Morning Lessons. And I talked to the AirBnB guy where I am staying, Farris Hussan, last night just before he left for his bedroom and his meditation time. And we talked about meditation and why he does it and why I do it, sort of, through my daily offices. And the one thing about Farris is that he does not have a divided heart, his life is one great big, He Who Hesitates Has Lost mantra.

So this born-in-the-United-States-but-whose-family-is-from-Iraq sixteen-year-old kid snuck out and flew to Bagdad to see for himself what the war was really like. And hopped on a bus for a hippie Rainbow gathering. And flew to Afghanistan to study the plight of women and street kids. And walked the streets of Dearborn, Michigan, which has the largest single concentration of Arab Muslims in North America with a big Star of David necklace and his school’s Jewish Club t-shirt just to see what it felt like. And he worked as a  Wall Street stock analyst for one of the biggest firms until he started his own hedge fund when he was twenty-two. He is all about investigative reporting. So he invites random people to come sleep on his couch while he composes music in the next room. And meditates.

On responsibility.

Danny Silk describes one of the pillars that hold up healthy relationships as that of responsibility. Responsibility is the opposite of a reaction. “Response-ability” is the capacity to face any situation and make powerful choices that are consistent with who you say you are. It is a refusal to run away from difficulties or any part of your life or reality that you happen to dislike.

And when I meditate on a divided heart, in the never-exactly-quiet clunking pipes and horn honks and traffic whistles of Manhattan pre-dawn, I notice some grievous hesitation. And may it not be so.

Dear LORD God Almighty, may my trust be in You, and You alone. May me heart rejoice in You, for in Your holy Name I have put my trust. Let Your loving-kindness, O LORD, be upon me as I have put my trust in You.

And may my heart be one.