Heart Matters
Warren Buffet, well known billionaire and financier, offered his advice on hiring the best business employees. He said, “Somebody once said that in looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if they don’t have the first, the other two will kill you.” 1 A similar word could be offered regarding the qualities or chambers of the spiritual heart and the challenge of following the way of Jesus.
We can view the heart in different ways, and we speak of it often. Literally, the physical organ of the heart has four chambers that must be in a wellsynchronized order to move blood from the two top atrial chambers through to the two bottom ventricle chambers. Should any of the chambers fail to function, partially or completely, the heart will begin to fail and the body to suffer. Metaphorically, the Hebrew people (i.e. the People of Israel long before they were known as Israelites) thought of the human heart as comprised of three chambers, each with its essential function: the intellect (thinking), the emotions (feeling), and the will (intention or doing). And, in our everyday language, we express our “heart condition” with phrases like “wholehearted,” “broken hearted,” “hardhearted,” “halfhearted,” “heart of the matter,” “allheart,”“his heart just wasn’t in it,” or “bless her heart.”
Just as the Greek philosopher, Hippocrates, used the four humors or fluids of the body to categorize the various conditions of mental and physical health of the human body, we can consider how our behavior reflects our spiritual hearts. For example, take away any of the chambers of the Hebrew “spiritual” heart and we can imagine the corresponding result. If the intellect were missing, feelings would dominate our lives and could immobilize us when we need to act in spite of how we feel; we might also become overly impulsive or involved in our daytoday interactions and communications. Leave out feelings, and we become analytical to the extreme, like “Spock” or “Data” on the TV series, Star Trek. We’d be joyless, humorless automatons. And without our “will,” we would become permanent spectators to the needs and conditions of others. Compartmentalizing any chamber of the heart impedes the fullness of life in us. We need the integrated functioning of all the chambers, physically and spiritually, to become the fully alive children of God. Exercising our faith in service to those in need, working together through the ministries of the Church, opening our lives to share how God is with us and how God is calling us to be with others keeps the faith blood of the Body of Christ circulating the life giving Spirit of God where it is needed – in us and through us.
One question John Wesley, the founding father of Methodism, used to get at matters of the heart was “How goes it with your soul?” He asked other questions, too, that included:
1. Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression that I am better than I am? 2. Do I confidentially pass onto another what was told me in confidence?
3. Am I a slave to dress, friends, work, or habits?
4. Did the Bible live in me today?
5. Do I give it time to speak to me everyday?
6. Am I enjoying prayer?
7. When did I last speak to someone about my faith?
8. Do I pray about the money I spend?
9. Do I insist upon doing something about which my conscience is uneasy?
10. Am I defeated in any part of my life?
11. How do I spend my spare time?
12. Do I thank God that I am not as other people, especially as the Pharisee who despised the publican? 13. Is there anyone whom I fear, dislike, disown, criticize, hold resentment toward, or disregard?
If so, what am I going to do about it? 14. Do I grumble and complain constantly? 15. Is Christ real to me?2
On Wednesday, February 22nd, we will worship together as we begin the Church season of Lent, a 40day period of spiritual self examination that provides us an opportunity to experience the life, death and resurrection of Jesus more fully and that allows us to recalibrate our hearts to the rhythm of God’s love for the world. To that end, I invite you to read and to take the “Spiritual Growth Inventory” included in this newsletter and follow the directions printed there. I hope this will be helpful to you as we all seek to grow in the likeness of Jesus and to follow the practices of his way.
May God strengthen our hearts on the way! Pastor Brandon
John Wesley’s Class Meetings: a Model for Making Disciples, by D. Michael Henderson, Evangel Publishing House, 1997, pp. 1189
