Tuesday, June 30, 2015

“More than all, the heart must bear the largest part.”

Hymn: “Let All the World in Every Corner Sing” (George Herbert 1593-1633)
Various Tunes

Are you ever confused when what your head tells you is at odds with the tugging of your heart? This is bad enough in everyday decision-making, but it is amplified when, as a serious follower of Christ, your head-knowledge and your heart-feelings collide.

I’m weighing a philosophy or a trend. I want to be able to take a stand (at least internally) and come to a conclusion in which I find peace. I may struggle with this dilemma for a long, long time as I weigh the two options – like an old-timey scale. One minute I lean to the right; the next I lean to the left. I am NOT drawing some conservative-liberal picture here, so don’t even go there.

When that happens, where do you usually land? With your head or with your heart? Think about that for a minute, then rejoin me here.

I know a lot of facts about God and the Bible. I’ve been in Sunday school since before I was born. I majored in Biblical studies in college and have a seminary degree. Underneath all that, I have learned the nature of God, especially as it is demonstrated and modeled through Christ. Because of that, I think this hymnline speaks for me: when I can’t reconcile the two, my heart goes with what I understand to be the nature of God – the loving, kind, forgiving, grace-filled, understanding, accepting, inclusive, faithful attributes that seem to ride above and beneath all the “factoids” I’ve picked up along the way and on which many not-so-wise decisions have been made by churches and denominations over the years… and sometimes by me.

More than all the knowledge contained in my head, the love of Christ in my heart has to rule… has to carry the largest, hardest part.

How about you?


Ralph Vaughn Williams’ setting of this text

No comments:

Post a Comment

You are welcome to comment on any of the posts. They are sent to ME directly. Thanks for any feedback you would like to make.

Hymnlines - Hemlines: Get it?! :)

Hymnlines - Hemlines: Get it?! :)