Thinking Hearts

So very learned are we in this still new millennium.

We know everything about everything. Or if we don’t we can always Google it. Or YouTube it.

Probably very soon our brains will start growing like aliens into big light bulb heads. I personally have two B.S. degrees bellying up to my dinner table with me. And I know half a dozen other people who are “in school” for higher degrees.

We are getting smarter.

I love learning and thirst for it like a hunting dog after the chase. But we are not only made of brains. We have sensitive fingertips, unquenchable eyes, and slamming fluttering, sometimes dancing hearts that also strive to be counted.

Hearts.

I have studied and learned that the heart is amazing.

A big pump that works as a blood factory.

Never ceasing to keep your body moving, your brain ticking along at warp speed. Mechanical.

Industrial.

Integral,

but even still Replaceable.

My big lug of a brother in law had a sick ticker. He was born with some ragged edges in his baby heart and now that he is knocking on middle age it was time for another repair.

He went in swinging. My sister was strong but if you looked real hard she was terrified of loosing him.

Cracking open someone’s ribcage and shutting down their heart is no small thing.

His giant chest lay open and exposed for hours. Her heart was also sliced open, waiting, for the jolt that would say, it’s over, everything is ok.

And he came through, like a champ. Amazingly he was home within 5 days. She said she laid her hand on his chest feeling for the old scattered reggae rhythm and was shocked to find it thumping like a high school band, steady and strong.

In our minds we knew the risk. The possible outcomes. The worst case. But what happened was not foreseeable. Completely wonderful quick recovery. And we gave all the credit to the manufacturer: God.

You see, God has this thing for hearts.

I believe he gave Russ special mercy because hearts are very very important to God.

He made them to work in ways that are far beyond the mystery of the brain. The heart is a wonder of mechanical craftsmanship in the way it functions even under duress as it did for Russ. But it is also so tender that it can be crushed by a whispered word and give up without looking back. You see the heart does more than just function as our power plant. It was created by God to hold His very whispers to our soul.

 In the amazing story which is recounted by neuropsychologist Paul Pearsall in his book The Heart’s Code, we learn of a little girl who received a donor heart from a murder victim. After the transplant she began having nightmares and was able, through sharing those detailed dreams with a counselor, to name places and events and eventually identify the murderer.

The heart knows things that the mind doesn’t. It is made to process things that your brain can never ever access rightfully.

God created this way for us to believe and know the mysteries of His glory. Not through our wondrous brain, but through our heart. Romans 10:10 says “For it is with your heart that you believe” Not your logic, or your wit or your reasoning. Your heart must believe.

Jesus assures us that the pure hearts will see God.

The work God treasures comes from your heart.

The music of praise to delight Him must begin in the heart.

The Law that God first gave was surely written on stones and later scrolls to be pondered and debated studied and memorized. But the true relationship with Him begins when His love steadies the very beat of our hearts.

You see, it is impossible to know God completely and be known by Him with our reasoning and our logic. He has a language that only your heart understands.

Sure, we know more now than we ever have. And so many great advances have been made based on that knowledge. But never ever let yourself be deceived into thinking that you can depend on your education to find the rest your soul longs for.

The knowledge your heart understands and your spirit craves is “written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of the human heart” 2 Corinthians 3:3