Follow Your Heart

My wife was watching some PBS show featuring the Canadian group, The Tenors. They sang their heartwarming and wise song, "Lead with Your Heart", where they urged

If you lead, lead with your heart,
It’s the one thing you can trust.

Senator Portman found out that his son was gay. Now, the good senator had always stood for traditional marriage. But now, well, he wasn't sure. So he asked Dick Cheney's advice. As the wise Dick Cheney advised the troubled Senator Portman, "Follow your heart."

So, curious as I am, I asked, "What does that mean?" Clearly you have more than one possible method to decide matters. You can "follow your heart" or ... what? Well, the next obvious alternative is your mind. With the exception of making decisions with dice or darts -- randomly -- I can't actually think of anything else that doesn't fall in one of those two categories. You either lead with your heart or you lead with your mind.

Now, of course, neither of these two options is referring to a mere body part. It's not like one is saying, "Use that pump in your chest" and the other is "Use the gray matter between your ears." Not at all. One is saying, "Go with your gut." No, see? Still a body part. It's "Go with how you feel." That's the idea. Or you can think it through. Of course, as everyone knows, that's a lesser method, because the truly good, truly noble, truly self-fulfilling way is ... the heart.

That, of course, as illustrated by The Tenors and Cheney, is the most reliable, most revered, most honored approach today. Sure, sure, people can use their minds. Fine. But ... well, boring. And likely not fulfilling. No, the heart. That's what moves you. That's what compels you. Cold logic, straightforward facts, pragmatism, these things are fine, but they don't really get you anywhere.

The Bible, of course, disagrees. The Bible warns instead that the heart is so desperately evil and deceitful that we don't even realize it (Jer 17:9). The Natural Heart is stone. The remedy, in fact, isn't a softening or extra work of some sort, but a radical transplant.

"Oh," I hear you say, "so you're recommending 'Follow your head'?" Well, no, not quite. The Bible warns that "the world through its wisdom did not come to know God" (1 Cor 1:21). Sin, as it turns out, rots the brain (Rom 1:18-28). The remedy for that, according to Scripture, is a renewed mind (Rom 12:2). That's a process in itself.

So, what am I saying? I'm suggesting a change of heart that is executed by a transplant by God and a renewal of the mind that is brought about by repeated washings with the Word. I'm recommending a constant distrust of choosing a course based on how you feel about it because, as so aptly illustrated in the Cheney/Portman story, it's not likely to be a good choice. Better to use your mind and allow God to supply you the heart you need.