heart

The Heart of the Matter

| Marie Griffith

I continued my reading in Numbers last week so that’s where my Monday School comes from today. See the Monday School page to find out more.

Moses’ authority was challenged by his own brother and sister in Chapter 12 and Chapters 13 through 14 recounts more complaining and an all out rebellion of the people of God.

God told Moses to send spies to check out the good land of Canaan which He was giving them. Moses wanted to know a few things about the Promised Land. What was the land like? How many people are there and are they strong or weak? Are there trees on the land?

Besides confirming all the good things about the land, I’m certain Moses expected to receive information to help him and the other leaders develop a strategy to occupy it.

The report from the spies began well. They admitted the land flowed with milk and honey, but the report focused on the strong people who lived there and the large fortified cities. Caleb spoke up and reassured the people the land could be taken but this only made the other spies exaggerate their report even more. Of the people who inhabited the land the other spies said, “We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”  

Again, Caleb with Joshua, pleaded with the people:

“The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.” Numbers 14:7-9   

The people were so fearful……..so angry at the leaders for bringing them out of Egypt…………..so convinced that what God promised wasn’t true………hysteria took over and they wanted to murder Caleb and Joshua.

Ten of the twelve spies came back from the 40 day assignment convinced there was no way the land could be taken. The other two were more certain than ever of God’s promises. It makes me wonder. Did the spies stay together on their undercover journey? Or did they separate into smaller groups to explore the land? What did the spies talk about during all those late night dinners around the campfire? Did each of them know what the others thought? What did Joshua and Caleb see that the other ten didn’t?

God pointed out the difference between Caleb and Joshua and the rest. First in Numbers 14 then in chapter 32:

“But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.”    Verse 24

‘Because they have not followed me wholeheartedly, not one of those who were twenty years old or more when they came up out of Egypt will see the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob— not one except Caleb and Joshua, for they followed the Lord wholeheartedly.’    Verses 11-12

Caleb and Joshua saw the same land and the same people as the other spies, but their hearts made them see with eyes of faith.

The ten spies saw the fortified cities. Caleb and Joshua saw the land God promised His people. The ten saw how big the people were and saw themselves as grasshoppers. Caleb and Joshua remembered the promises, remembered the miracles and deliverance, and saw themselves as God’s chosen ones.

Caleb and Joshua followed God wholeheartedly. It’s always about the heart.

Long after Caleb and Joshua, when the teachers of the law asked Jesus which commandment was the most important – this was his answer:

“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’  Mark 12:30 ESV

I like this version of the verse because it sounds like a promise too.

Maybe we love more and more wholeheartedly as we continue our journeys and grow in the knowledge of who He is. Maybe we love God in proportion to our understanding of His love for us…….and our faith grows as our love grows.

Then let us ask for understanding.

 

 

Photo by Robson Hatsukami Morgan on Unsplash

 

Look What You Made Me Do

| Marie Griffith

Like millions of others, my daughters anticipated the new song by Taylor Swift and they weren’t disappointed. While most critics have bashed Look What You Made Me Do, millions of fans have helped Swift break streaming, download, and video view records and it’s predicted the song will hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart next month.

I like the song. Maybe it’s easy for me to like it because my girls literally grew up with Taylor Swift. Every single one of her songs has been played over and over and over in our house, on the computer, in the car, or on their phones. Wherever they could be played, TS songs were played. So in a way, I grew up as a mom with Taylor Swift. From Teardrops on My Guitar to Look What You Made Me Do is a lot of growing.

As I listen to Look What You Made Me Do, I’m reminded of a time as a young woman when I had the same attitude as the one played out in the song. After some heartbreaks I vowed I would never be hurt again. I didn’t trust others and kept everyone at arm’s length. I was strong and independent and ready to take on the world.

Like Taylor, “I got smarter, I got harder in the nick of time.” Only my heart became harder and harder because with every hurt a wall was built around my heart. Another hurt, another wall. Walls of sarcasm and suspicion. Walls of bitterness, pride and stony ambition.

But the thing about walls around our hearts is they don’t work. Not if we want love and joy and peace. Walls keep these away.

So what do I tell my young daughter when she’s betrayed by a friend? Or when someone calls her a name? What do I do when I’m lied to? Or ignored? Or uninvited?

I can tell my daughter to treat those who mistreated her the same way. I can tell her to ignore them and never talk to them again. I can snub those who ignore me and unfriend those who no longer welcome me.

But there is a better way. I’ll be kind to them. I’ll smile and speak when I see them. And I’ll forgive them. I’ll tell my daughters to do the same. Forgiveness may be a process and one I have to work hard at but it’s the only way to do it if I want to love and live well.

And I will tell my daughters to fight to keep their hearts soft. “Become wiser. Don’t give in to what you want to do at first. Don’t let this song or all the others like it become the anthem of your lives. Don’t give in to how the world says to treat those who hurt you. Instead, be kind and brave . And forgive them.”

 Above all else, guard your heart,
    for everything you do flows from it.     Proverbs 4:23 NIV

While lessons learned should make us wiser, they shouldn’t make us harder. Hearts are meant to be soft and without walls. That’s the only way we learn to love. That’s how we give it and get it. That’s how we learn to trust. That’s how we learn to forgive and become compassionate and kind.

Maybe smarter in the nick of time. But not harder.

Photo by Gabriele Diwald on Unsplash

Reflection

| Marie Griffith

 As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart.   Proverbs 27:19 NIV

 

I planned to write more on this and include some thoughts about the end of my devotional readings from Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter.

 

But the thing about a proverb is it says what it says without needing any help from me.

 

 

Reflecting

Hand Holders

| Marie Griffith

I began this Lenten journey anticipating a fruitful time of reflection, refocusing and repentance. It has been that and so much more.

This week’s readings from Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter have been especially rich with deep truths my heart needed.

The reading from Day 27 by Peter Kreeft about Jesus: “He came. He entered space and time and suffering. He came, like a lover. He did the most important thing and he gave the most important gift: himself. He sits beside us not only in our sufferings but even in our sins. He does not turn his face from us, however much we turn our face from him.”

Let that seep into your soul. Let it flow into the deepest places of hurt and fear and let it heal you. Jesus does not turn away. When my heart is broken…..when the pain feels too much for me…….when I don’t understand. He’s right beside me.

He’s there too when I’m full of pride or when I’ve judged someone and feel justified doing it. When I’ve ignored an opportunity to do someone good. Even when I’m mean or greedy. He’s there. Not turning away from me. Not pointing his finger……but reaching out his hand.

Deuteronomy 31:6 says “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Jesus says in Matthew 28:20 “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Then there was this on Day 32. Dorothee Soelle writes: “God has no other hands than ours.”

The good that needs doing in the world will be done by our hands. Our hands.

Sometimes the way others know Jesus is with them and never leaves them……is by our being with them and not leaving. By our sitting right beside them whatever they’re going through. Sickness, painful circumstances, mental illness, bad choices, or foolish mistakes.

Jesus is the Savior. He’s the healer and the heart changer. But we can be hand holders.

Isn’t that what the Gospel is? The Good News that we don’t have to do this thing alone…..that Somebody has our back and loves us right where we are.

He’s here with me, holding my hand through it all……so I can hold the hands of the tired ones, the sick and hurting ones, the ones too weary to believe and the ones weighed down with regret.

I’m learning to be a hand holder.

 

Visit my friend Joy, on her blog  A Life Giving Moment for her Lenten journey.

 

 

 

Take Heart

| Marie Griffith

My Lenten journey coincides with another journey…..one I knew would be complicated and take me to hard and lonely places. But it’s a good journey. I don’t know of any worthy journey without challenges.

It’s the hard parts that make us stronger. We’re more courageous when we get to the other side of a trial. Our hearts are strengthened by God’s faithfulness and His promises become the anchors to our souls. And our trials are nothing compared with the glory to come.

“Jesus came to be the pattern, to leave footprints for the person who would join him, who would become a follower,” writes Soren Kierkegaard in the reading from Day 11 of Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter. He continues, “Christ’s life is a demand.”

God, give me courage to follow. Not to admire, but to follow.

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”    John 16:33

 

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photo by dietmaha @ pixabay

 

 

 

 

path photo by danielam @ pixabay

 

 

 

 

 

Joy

| Marie Griffith

Joy to the world! The Lord is come.
Let earth receive her King
Let every heart
Prepare Him room

Jesus came that we may have life and have it abundantly. This life is the kind that has a joy so deep, a joy so real, that it’s indestructible. Not that we won’t go through trials of many kinds. We will. But the abundant life is the kind of life that can smile in the midst of trouble and sickness and sorrow. Not a forced smile. A genuine one.

It’s the kind of life that can see beyond the here and now because the abundant life Jesus promises is the kind of life that knows this isn’t the end. There is more to come. A lot more. Eternity.

But for many the tension of preparing for Christmas Day increases as the day draws near. We dash here and there, from party to gathering to special programs, decorating and gift wrapping and candy making, menu planning and extra grocery shopping. 

And we wonder about the joy because we don’t feel it.

We’ve rushed here and there to do the wrong kind of preparing.

This joy isn’t found in a perfectly decorated home or an extravagantly prepared meal or the amount of money spent on the gifts we’re giving or receiving. It isn’t found in all the parties and events and Christmas bonuses.

It’s found in Jesus.

Those other things are just a foretaste of the real kind of joy. The abundant life Jesus came to give us.

We only have to make room in our hearts for him.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.                           John 10:10 (ESV)

Part of the Weekly Photo Challenge

Underneath

| Marie Griffith

Now that the house is mostly empty we can begin the work of renovating. We’ve never done this before so we’re learning as we go. I’ve learned how to pull up carpet and removed hundreds of staples from the subfloor. My favorite part is taking a crowbar to the tack strips along the sides of the rooms.

In one of the back bedrooms, my parents’ room when I was a girl, we found hardwood floors underneath the carpet.

I would love to restore them but half the floors have been drilled with screws every half inch across the entire length of the floor. We have one more room that may have fully restorable wood floors. We shall see.

What covered those beautiful hardwood floors in that back bedroom was the ugliest carpet I’ve ever seen. It may have been the trend at one time but I hope mauve carpeting never makes a comeback. Why would anyone want to cover those beautiful hardwood floors?

We do the same thing. With our hearts.

We are hurt in some way and without even thinking about it we put a layer of protection around our hearts. More hurt comes…….a criticism, a betrayal, or broken promises. Another layer of protection. Someone lies to us, leaves us out or ignores us. So another layer goes around our hearts. And another. And then another.

We don’t even realize how guarded we’ve become. Unable to receive the good because we’re always expecting the bad.

We guard ourselves from the very thing we need and want most.

Love. Authenticity. Real relationships.

The covering over our hearts….the one we cling to…..that we think will protect us from hurt….. also shields us from joy and love and true intimacy with others.

But what’s underneath can be beautiful if we will just be brave enough to peel away the layers.

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 NLT

In response to Authentic.