There Is Nothing New Under the Sun

haven’t we been here before?

Only that shall happen

That has happened,

Only that occur

That has occurred;

There is nothing new

Beneath the sun!

---

The capacity to drive a thought away once and for all is the gateway to eternity. The infinite in an instant. — Simone Weil

---

Hello, reader. How is your heart? What spirit are you of?

“We’ve been here before,” writes Hannah Reichel in her emergency devotional, For A Time Such as This (Hannah Reichel, For A Time Such As This: An Emergency Devotional, Eerdmans: 2025, p. 3). Indeed. In Ecclesiastes, King Solomon reminds us that “there is nothing new under the sun,” (1:9). As hope wears thin, let’s remember that, Solomon’s wise words, “for everything there is a season,” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). In the past 24 hours, I’ve heard many people say they don’t know what to do. They ask, what is going on? They ponder, what times are these? They wonder, to whom shall we look for guidance and leadership?

In the merciless pounding of the storm, we can easily become disoriented. When we lose our sense of direction, we risk getting lost because we have lost the power of discernment. Literally disorient means turned away from the east, meaning the rising sun. The word orient contains the Latin root for rising sun. Disorientation describes being turned away from the crucial direction for navigation, and from the light of the galaxy. We can extend that meaning into the spiritual realm, and think of disorientation as being turned away from, or having lost sight of, G-d.

In Psalm 46, the Psalmist beckons us to trust in G-d in the midst of the chaos of global upheaval, disaster, and war. When storms of destruction swirl around us, G-d can be our refuge and fortress, and so we do not fear. Be still and know that I am G-d, G-d tells us. The Hebrew word used in this verse — harpu, which comes from the shoresh רָפָה raphah — means more than silence and stillness. Raphah means to surrender, to let go, to weaken, to fail, to loosen and relax.

Where do we find G-d at His most powerful? We find Him at His most powerful when we are at our weakest, most failed moments of life. In his recent book In Accordance with the Scriptures, Fr. John Behr writes “We are clay in the hands of G-d and we must relax in His hands. We must actively be passive so that we can be formed in His hands.” Raphah calls us to be actively passive. In 12 step circles they say ‘let go and let G-d.”

---

We do not have to understand new things, but by dint of patience, effort and method, to come to understand with our whole self the truths which are evident. — Simone Weil

---

Does this mean embracing indifference? No. It means “keeping your focus, feelings, and thoughts [as] your own,” as Hannah Reichel puts it. It means “be[ing] strategic with your attention.” Simone Weil wrote at length about attention as a sublime spiritual practise. For Weil attention happens by turning away from the self, in its purest form attention becomes as a kind of prayer.

When we consider Weil’s conceptualisation of attention, Reichel’s advice to apply discernment in whatever attend to becomes more relevant. It becomes a matter of value, and a spiritual focus—what do we worship? We cannot pay attention to all the things all the time. How often do we let the (limbic) storm steal our focus? How does this rob us, spiritually? Do not fear. Do not rage. Do not despair. Do not feed the authoritarianism and totalitarianism with your fear and despair. Keep your thoughts and feelings and focus away from the all-consuming grasp. “Renounce all that is not grace and do not desire grace,” writes Weil in Detatchment.

Finally, I have a quote from Bonhoeffer to add to the mix.

Bonhoeffer noticed that people engage with one track minds — when there’s a bomb, they become fear, when there’s nice food, they become greed, when they encounter disappointment, they become despair. This manner of engaging the world of chaos characterised 1940s German prison life, it seemed superficial and futile to Bonhoeffer— it obscures the full experience of life. In a 29 May 1944 entry of his Letters and Papers From Prison, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote

“I notice repeatedly here how few people there are who can harbour conflicting emotions at the same time … we must think about things much more important to us than life itself … we have to get people out of their one track minds; that is a kind of ‘preparation’ for faith, or something that makes faith possible” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers From Prison, ed. Eberhard Bethge, Touchstone 1997, pp. 320-311)

“Joy is the fullness of the feeling of reality,” Weil writes in Misfortunates. By all means follow the news. Don’t forget gratitude and joy, though! Find balance, stop and smell the roses. Apply discernment, strategise your attention. Think of your attention as a prayer you act out. What have you made into your idols? How do they serve your understanding of the world? How do they impact your relationship to the Divine? Do they take you further from G-d? Do they take you closer to G-d?

When you find your heart racing and your mind flooded with neurochemicals that fuel feelings of fear, rumination, rage, despair, blame, and shame — it’s safe to say you’re moving away from G-d. When you find your heart softened, and your mind filled with curiosity, a measure of skepticism, empathy and grace for the Other— it’s safe to say you’ve moved closer to G-d. Remember to resist the urge to make your feelings idols, feel them, and test them, don’t be so quick to believe them, they might not be trustworthy.

In our sense perceptions, if we are not sure of what we see we change our position while looking, and what is real becomes evident. In the inner life, time takes the place of space. With time we are altered, and, if as we change we keep our gaze directed towards the same thing, in the end illusions are scattered and the real becomes visible. This is on condition that the attention be a looking and not an attachment. — Simone Weil

“G-d is with us, and this is not the end, the end is Joy … don’t let the politics and its leaders throw a palisade that prevent you from experiencing the spirit, the sacredness, the transcendent, the holy place—where joy resides.” — Brian Zahnd

---

Note: All Simone Weil quotes taken from Attention and Will.