heart

by

How To Get Your Heart Set On The Right Thing

We all get pulled by our hearts in different directions. Sometimes those directions come from a want that we have or a cause we are passionate about. Our hearts might even pull us towards some necessity.

r-ontario-teachers-strike-large570

No matter what, the end result is always the same: we have our hearts set on it, and nothing will move us from whatever it is we have our hearts set on.

It might be a brand new car.

Have you ever noticed that if there is a certain car you are interested in you start seeing them everywhere? You see them in parking lots, and about every fifth car that you pass on the road seems to be the model you’re being drawn towards.

Or maybe it’s something you need, like a new bed (I wrote about that here). It seems like once you are in the process and start checking out new mattresses, you have to go through with it … You have your heart set on a new bed.

We’ve all witnessed demonstrations, either live or on TV, and we can tell how passionate the people are about their cause.

I remember back when I was in grade 13 … yes, for all you non-Ontario readers, we had grade 13 some years ago.

Well, the previous year, teachers in the Toronto area had been on work to rule, but a whole year passed and they still had no contract with the Ministry of Education.

So they went on strike.

I remember that day in October. It was our last day of school, and Miss. Habas was teaching us Math (functions and relations). She drew a shape of a parabola on the blackboard and started to explained how to solve the problem.

But the next day the strike was on.

What happened next was the best three and a half months of high school I ever experienced.  That’s right, that’s how long the teachers were on strike.

It was fantastic for us, except for the kids who moved up to their parents’ cottages to go to school there.

For the teachers, they walked the line. They had their hearts set on a new contract and held out until near the end of January until they got what they wanted.

Personally, I would have been satisfied if they had have stuck to their guns a little longer. I was enjoying my school, which was a little math tutoring twice a week for the first three weeks of the strike.

Just like the teachers had their hearts set on a new contract, when the strike was over they got pulled by their hearts to something else.

And so it is: our hearts pull us here and there.

But there is one thing our hearts should keep pulling us to, one thing we should keep setting our hearts on.

That one thing is God.

I read in 2 Chronicles 16:9 that God seeks to support those whose heart is fully committed to Him. I take that as someone who has their heart set on putting God first in their life.

Here’s the thing: The problem is we get our hearts set on so many things. How do we keep our hearts set on God? Well, here’s a challenge for you: at each meal many of us say grace. When you say grace from now on, declare that you are setting your heart on God. That just might keep your heart set on the right thing.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you set your heart on lately? Is it worth it? Leave your comments below.

by

What Are You Growing Out Of?

“We should pay attention to things we might be growing out of.” … That sounds like a funny statement. Of course we pay attention to things we grow out of!

shoes

Long gone are the days of trying to squeeze my body into pants that are a size too small. When a shirt gets too tight, it’s not showing off my muscles, it’s accentuating my belly … and the all-season Michelin XPS I carry around my waist!

No, we have no trouble noticing when we’ve grown out of clothes. When we were young we always needed something new because we were always growing.

It was either shoes, pants, shirts, coats, or boots. Always something.

Now we don’t grow out of much – at least in a clothing kind of way.

But we do grow out of things.

But really, it’s not so much a growing out of something as it is a moving on from something.

The other day I came home after work and my wife, Lily was on the phone with our daughter, Karlie. They were catching up on what was happing in their lives. In their conversation, Karlie mentioned she had been talking with a friend from Bible college days.

They got to talking about spiritual things and apparently the guy hadn’t been going to church. He kind of got lazy, didn’t feel like going to the church he grew up in, was tired Sunday mornings and so was just sleeping in.

In some ways he’s growing out of church, moving on. I don’t think he’s stopped believing in Christ but just outgrown the church thing.

How does one outgrow church? How do you move on from church, to a pillow and a comforter? … I believe you do it by neglecting your heart.

When you neglect anything it has an impact. I didn’t pick up my guitar for two weeks … guess what? It was out of tune when I strummed a chord. I promptly set it back down and walked away.

I played pool the other day for the first time in a month and I was missing shots I normally would make. I didn’t feel like playing all that long.

A friend who hadn’t been out to hockey for two months, commented that his puck handling was off. I hadn’t exercised all week and felt really tired playing. I wonder why!

The answer is all the same: neglect. When you neglect something, you lose something, not permanently necessarily, but you have to do something to get back to the way it was before you neglected it.

I’m going to have to tune my guitar before I play it again. I need to play a few more games of pool to get my angles figured out. I need to exercise throughout the week if I want to have more energy when I play hockey.

Here’s the thing: When you neglect your heart by not spending time with God, praying, or dialoguing with Him, other things will fill your heart and you’ll begin to grow out of things like going to church, serving in a ministry, things like that. It could get worse to the point where you’ve grown out of God all together. Has God changed? No. Did He become irrelevant to you? No. You’ve just neglected your heart. And the only way to get your heart back in shape is to spend time with God, talk, dialogue, get involved in His work. Then you’ll be sure not to grow out of Him.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you neglected lately? Leave your comment below.