Skip to main content

The Heart...

             The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.” (Jeremiah 17:9-10)

“His heart is in the right place.”

“I know in my heart.”

“Trust your heart, it won’t lead you wrong.”

I wonder what would happen if those who are so certain of our hearts did a scientific study of the percent of times that the heart was right and the percent that it was wrong. In Old Testament law, if a prophet was ever wrong, even once, the prophet was to be put to death. And if the prophet suggested the people follow some other god, the prophet was to be put to death. And today’s passage makes it clear that our hearts – our selves – are not the best choice of guidance.

This is something that C. G.  Jung pointed out in his essay The Undiscovered Self. We can subjectively decide whether something is a good idea, but on our own, we have no means of objectively examining it. If you ask another person, you’ll get a different perspective, but it’s like asking someone you meet in a maze how to get out. It’s another human’s perspective. It’s only when we can find the perspective of someone who is not in the maze that we can get an objective view.

Ultimately, we really have a limited number of sources for our decisions. Our heart or ourselves is clearly inadequate. Your thoughts are not likely to be original to yourself. You have been influenced by all the other people in the maze.  The opinions of additional people will be influenced in the same manner. We learn from experience when someone or some group have led us wrong several times – or we should. One error for which we should be on our guard is the notion that there’s nothing but the maze. They may be right, but they have no means of objectively discovering that. In fact, that is precisely the thinking that led to Plato’s writing about “The Cave.”

We cannot trust ourselves to take us where we have not been. If we do, we’re far more likely to fail than to succeed. And the One who searches our hearts and minds will know whether we have trusted Him, the world, or ourselves. The goal here isn’t to take all choice away from us, but to guide us to better choices.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Shepherd!

                 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep . (John 10:14) God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” (Genesis 3:14) The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths     for his name’s sake. Even though I walk     through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil,     for you are with me; your rod and your staff,     they comfort me. (Psalm 23:1-4) For the Jews, it was politically incorrect to make claims about yourself as a teacher (or possibly as anything else.) Teachers were expected to take pride in the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more