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My Flesh and Heart May Fail

               Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalm 73:25-26)

                There’s an old ad. I don’t remember what it’s about, but an animated figure throws a world class, melodramatic hissy fit about something. I wish I could remember it to share it because that’s what comes to mind here. Please don’t be offended. I’m quite sure Asaph was in circumstances that justified such a cry. And I’m sure I’ve whined or otherwise expressed sentiments to God or about God that probably sounded over the top. Chances are fair that you’ve done the same. Or perhaps you’ve expressed some sentiment about someone or something else that sounds equally overboard. And looking at it from the outside or back through time, it might seem a little excessive when the truth is that it’s not only the truth, but probably an understatement.

                What Asaph said is true, but I spend more time either rolling my eyes at his ebullience or rolling my eyes at my envious lack. Why can’t I feel like that? Every day? All the time? Even Asaph – or David – didn’t suffer from the vapors like this all the time. But…but… could it be said that I (or we) idolize or worship certain emotional states? Are we failures as Christians if we aren’t draped over the furniture in some paroxysm of agony or ecstasy?

                The answer is that our emotions are not God. Neither are we failures if our emotions aren’t just so.  Regardless of how we feel, we have no one in Heaven but God, including ourselves. And in our moments of clarity, we know earth has nothing we desire besides Him. It is when we have someone in Heaven besides God, and when we think the earth has something we desire, that our flesh and our hearts fail, but that doesn’t change God.

 

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