I read an article about our hearts the other day that made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. Scientists and doctors are exploring the construction of our hearts and finding they are mini brains... wired, connected, not just a big muscle. Maybe heart transplant patients who report a change in their being after the surgery are right. There is more to our hearts than being pumps for blood.
The concordance in my Bible has a full page, in tiny type, listing references to the heart. The old ones’ wisdom may not have been based on scientific knowledge but it was a different kind of knowing that was equally accurate. I suspect the intuitive wisdom about the heart crosses all boundary lines of time, culture, religion and geography.
Since my reference point for understanding God is Jesus, I looked at what he had to say about the heart... "Blessed are the pure in heart; Where your treasure is, there will be your heart also; to the paralyzed man, ‘Take heart and walk’; Take heart, it is I; have no fear; Let not your heart be troubled." Now I know as a New Testament student who has been taught by Frank Stagg, that many of these statements are not actual quotes. That doesn’t bother me. The wisdom in the words is more important than the assurance of the accuracy of the words. One quote however stands out to me and I choose to take it literally. When questioned about the greatest commandment, Jesus replied, " The Lord our God is one ; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this; You shall love your neighbor as yourself". In two sentences all of the gospel that is necessary is summed up in order.
God is one... an affirmation echoed by our Jewish and Muslim brothers and sisters. Love God with all your heart comes first, not by accident but by design. Our hearts, wired for love, are the beginning source for all our yearning and reaching and searching for the One who first loved us. Our soul, the creation that carries our truest selves, is second in line with our minds and strength at the end of the list. As a child with an evangelical family tree, my Baptist mothers and fathers may have been right to have a healthy distrust for education that separated heart, soul and mind. My mind is necessary as I love God not because my mind can understand or imagine the fullness of God, but because using my mind can stretch my soul and deepen my love for God. An uninformed or unformed mind can be a hindrance to the heart, but it is no substitute for the heart and soul. And here is the problem.
We have elevated the mind and its way of knowing in our lives to first place. Our children must make A’s, go to the best colleges, have careers not jobs. We must know about environmental issues, racial divides, wars and rumors of wars so that we might act in accordance with God’s call to love our neighbors as ourselves. Knowledge is seen as the agent of change and the mind as the source for our strength. That is not true for me. My knowledge will always be imperfect and my mind will never equal the mind of God. For me, the starting place for all change, is in right relationship with God. All else in my life flows from this stream head. If I am praying, listening, waiting on God and my soul is resting in the assurance I am loved, my mind can be engaged, gain knowledge and act in strength that comes from my Source, a different way of knowing. I say this well aware of my own predisposition to intuition and feeling. The Meyers Briggs Type Indicator gives a clear picture of my preferred functioning style. I know my way of perceiving is not the only way and my way of finding God is not the only way. Nevertheless, the way of the heart, soul, mind and strength, all beginning in the Heart of God, all a seamless free play that connects us to each other, a way of knowing our hearts that lets us know the hearts of others, not either or but both and, an integrated whole soul, will set us all free... hearts hardwired to love, heads to learn and hands to serve...a Christian 3 H...Thanks be to God for my whole self.
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