Hard Human Hearts
How Hard Is Your Heart?
As I was walking up the steps leading from our garden to our deck, a very loud buzzing noise commenced. Looking back, I saw that when I stepped on a loose board, I trapped a cicada between it and another. I must admit I don’t have much compassion for a poor insect but the buzzing was loud and annoying. So I went back, intending to free the poor thing so it could fly away. But when I separated the 2 boards, it fell through the crack, down to the underbelly of the deck. Hopefully he managed to figure out how to get out and on with life, but at least the buzzing stopped!
I was reminded of this when I saw this quote from Christopher Germer’s book The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion:
A disciple asks the rebbe, “Why does Torah tell us to ‘place these words upon our hearts’? Why does it not tell us to place them in our hearts?” [Dt 11:18, NASB] The rebbe answers, “It is because as we are, our hearts are closed, and we cannot place the holy words in our hearts. So we place them on top of our hearts. And there they stay until, one day, the heart breaks and the words fall in.”
How hard is your heart? What will it take for the words of the Bible to fall into your heart? Can you do it on your own, with just the help of the Holy Spirit? Perhaps…more likely it will require another conduit…another person through which the Holy Spirit is working, to soften and prepare your heart to internalize the Word. It may be a truly heart-breaking experience, or it may “only” be a humbling experience. Watch and wait today for the Holy Spirit to facilitate the separation of the boards in your heart, so, like the falling cicada, the Word that you need to hear today falls readily into your heart.
I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. – Ezekiel 36:26
What do you think?
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