Reading
“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
Hebrews 4:14-16
Reflection
In Western society, especially post-Enlightenment, we tend to limit our definition of knowledge to that which can be reasoned and confirmed by our minds. But knowledge comes from many sources.
Pastor Mark alluded to one source of knowledge in his sermon on Sunday. He said “what begins as an uneasy feeling is often supported later with reason.” Sometimes our body understands what is going on, long before our brain registers the truth.
In fact, in the last two decades, researchers have been focusing on understanding the body-brain connection. In their article “Bodily Maps of Emotions” published in 2014, researchers Lauri Nummenmaa, Enrico Glerean, Riitta Hari, and Jari Hietanen documented where emotions show up in our bodies using heat maps. They explained that “emotional feelings are associated with discrete, yet partially overlapping maps of bodily sensations.” (See the body maps here: https://www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.1073/pnas.1321664111)
That warm feeling radiating from the center of our chest tells us that we are safe and loved. When our face feels on fire, it tells us that we have been wronged in some way. That knot in the pit of our stomach can alert us to the fact that something feels “off.”
So, when Pastor Mark talks about paying attention to the tension—there’s science to back it up. Sensations are your body’s way of processing external stimuli. In some cases, those sensations are protective. Pain tells us when something is wrong. It draws our attention so that we can take action.
But if, over time, we fail to heed and act on the sensations within our bodies—when we ignore them—those nagging sensations begin to take root. Bessel A. van der Kolk, author of “The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma,” explains that unprocessed negative experiences can continue to affect our bodies, sometimes showing up as: chronically tight shoulders, stomach issues, headaches, and back pain. These are all signs that our body knows something that our brain hasn’t worked through yet.
Last week, we had to face the question: am I being honest with myself, really? Dr. Van der Kolk would likely suggest that sometimes the tension we carry is connected to experiences we haven’t yet allowed ourselves to fully acknowledge. He explains that “as long as you keep secrets and suppress information, you are fundamentally at war with yourself…The critical issue is allowing yourself to know what you know. That takes an enormous amount of courage.”
One reason we can be brave and heed our bodies is because bodies were made by God, for our benefit. And Jesus had one. Jesus came to earth—fully human and fully divine. In his humanity, Jesus experienced bodily sensations, just like we do. Throughout the gospels, we are told that Jesus was hungry, thirsty, tired, and full of sorrow. These are embodied sensations.
In his life, Jesus modeled for us what it looks like to feel bodily sensations and emotions, to bring them to God, and then to work through those same feelings in God’s presence.
This week, invite God to help you notice the places in your body where you are experiencing tension. Invite him into those experiences that have taken root in your body.
