It seems as if our common enemy these days is the mind. We're telling kids, "Don't let anyone get in the way of your dreams." We're telling men, "Get in touch with your feminine side." We're embracing, "Don't think; do," and "Go with your heart." We might bring up a logical argument or pursue a line of reasoning, but when it collides with our feelings, it's right out. So we can embrace science right up until science tells us what we don't want to believe. We will embrace cognitive dissonance -- holding inconsistent and contradictory beliefs -- by silencing the mind and embracing the heart.
Feelings, we tell each other, are more reliable than thoughts. The heart is a better gauge of the right direction than the head. Only one problem with that; it's not true. Scripture says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jer 17:9). The heart is not the best way to determine what is right. Do you know what the very next verse says? "I, YHWH, search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds" (Jer 17:9-10). Did you notice that? He searches the heart and tests the mind. I'm not suggesting that the head is a better gauge of what is best. Sin rots the brain. It makes for futile thinking (Rom 1:21; Eph 4:17). Scripture says, "The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile" (1 Cor 3:20). Both heart and mind are suspect in natural human beings.
We are currently aiming for a heart-driven society where we set our minds aside and rule with our emotions. Even when we try to urge careful thought, it is with the caveat that we ignore thoughts that oppose the accepted "truth." "I know I'm right; don't bother me with facts." The thing is, this isn't new. It wasn't careful thinking that got Eve and Adam to try the fruit in the garden. It was the heart. And we've been ruled by our passions ever since, the result of which is the loss of reasonable thinking. "Futile minds," Scripture calls it. We think "Follow your heart" is a grand plan, but it isn't. What we need is new minds and new hearts. Something only the Creator can supply.
3 comments:
Follow your heart only works if people are basically good.
What is difficult about living this out, as a parent, is the desire to not limit your children's goals, while wanting to be realist about what those goals should be. We want our kids to reach for lofty goals, but also want to ground them in reality. Which is why your point about not focusing on following one's heart is so important.
The Bible verse that springs to my mind after reading this post is Proverbs 14:12 (repeated in Proverbs 16:25): “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” This warns me that my own conclusions--whether informed by my reasoning (mind), my emotions (heart), or even my cravings (body)--cannot be trusted in and of themselves. If I “look to my soul for the answer” or “follow my heart” or “go with my gut” or “do what feels good,” I may be led straight to hell; better to follow something (or Someone) more trustworthy outside of myself--the Lord Himself.
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