The Heart of the Matter

“I would rather have eyes that cannot see; ears that cannot hear; lips that cannot speak, than a heart that cannot love.” –Robert Tizon

And I will give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit within them. I will take away their stony, stubborn heart and give them a tender, responsive heart. –Ezekiel 11:19

Some time ago Les and I had the opportunity to see a traveling exhibit called Bodies. Maybe you’ve seen it too. With over 200 actual human bodies and specimens displayed, it offers an intimate and informative view of human anatomy in a way that is both solemn and awe-inspiring. It allows you to look deep inside the systems that make up our bodies: skeletal, muscular, nervous, digestive and so on. As a psychologist who teaches general psychology at the university level, Les was particularly fascinated by the brain and spinal cord display. But I couldn’t get over the part of the exhibit dedicated to the human heart.

What a marvel! The human heart beats 75 times a minute, forty million times a year, or two and a half billion times in a life of 70 years. At each beat, the average adult discharges about four ounces of blood. This amounts to three thousand gallons a day or 650,000 gallons a year—enough to fill more than 81 car tanks of 8,000 gallons each. The heart does enough work in one hour to lift a 150-pound man to the top of a three-story building, enough power in 70 years to lift the largest battleship afloat completely out of the water.

In spite of the miraculous power of this vital human organ and what it represents in the human spirit, our hearts —as this verse points out— can become divided and even turn to stone. The cause? It’s not cholesterol or high blood pressure. It’s what Ezekiel calls “vile images and detestable idols” (Ezekiel 11:18) that cause our hearts to harden. So we ask you, what images and idols is your heart given to? Is there something that has hardened your heart? Perhaps it is the idol of resentment or the vile image of retribution. It can be any number of things that cause a stony, stubborn heart. The question is what will it take to have a tender, responsive heart? As you probably know, the answer is not an easy one. More often than not, our hard heart needs a bit of breaking to soften it up. Anglo-Irish author and playwright Oscar Wilde asked a poignant question of anyone who has “heart problems”: How else but through a broken heart may the Lord Christ enter in?

If you had to rate how tender and responsive your heart is to God, what would you give it today? How about how tender you are toward your spouse?

Related Resources

product picture L.O.V.E.
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