The heart is an amazing organ. No bigger than your fist, it beats 100,000 times a day, pumping 2,000 gallons of blood through 60,000 miles of blood vessels — all in one person! It’s the only muscle in your body that never gets tired. While your brain tells your heart how much blood to pump in order to cover your activity, the heart supplies the brain with the oxygen-rich blood it needs to make decisions.
As a metaphor heart is used to designate the center of things, the seat of emotions or the measure of integrity. In ancient times feelings were often assigned to the gut or bowels, perhaps because of the movement we feel going on inside of us. Combined with the pace or intensity of the heartbeat, the feeling in the “pit of your stomach” was a way in which to describe the emotional state that you were in.
Intellect is the function of the brain that processes facts and sensory messages, weighs opinions and references life experiences (memories) in order to assign emotion or generate apathy. This is also an amazing process when you consider the fact that images, sounds or stories can trigger tear ducts, cause fists to clench, make chests to feel warm, bring lumps in your throat, turn your legs to rubber or simply urge your mouth to turn up at each end.
What role does the spirit have in all of this? We have spirits. They are what make us unique. We can follow the trend or challenge the tide. We can submit to control by others, or we can be the ones who control. In reality, we are all of those things, in varying measures. How we dig a potato is mechanical. How we get along with other potato diggers is spiritual.
God is spirit. His interface with us is his Spirit, also known as The Holy Spirit or The Holy Ghost. He has given us everything with which to live. He created our spirits. How we develop them is up to us. We are bound in this life by good decisions, bad decisions or even indecision. Even though we are uniquely different from our fellow spirt-siblings, deep within each of us is God’s pure spirit.
I don’t know why evil has been allowed to be a part of our world. I certainly don’t know where it comes from. But it plays a major role in the degradation of our spirits. The purpose of our journey, it seems, is to get back to the pure spirit of God. We have had the privilege of witnessing a pure spirit in the man Jesus Christ, God’s son. Perfection is attainable, but it will likely take more than this life to achieve it. The Apostle Peter wrote
Love one another deeply, from the heart. (I Peter 1:22)
I believe it, but do I ever struggle with it! I often feel as if I will NEVER get there. But when we get overwhelmed with the big picture, it may help to stop and take a look back. Can I see measured progression in my life? Do I lose my temper less? Do I consciously make an effort to relate to others more? Do I see myself understanding, and working toward, the ministry of reconciliation, the making of all things right, as far as it depends on me?
If you’ve looked back and see measured progression, then turn back around and keep going forward. If, on the other hand, you see no improvement — or even regression — then it’s time to take baby steps. Do the thing that is before you, this day, this moment. Obey in the small things. God is always telling you to “do” and “don’t do.” Listen to him. Like your beating heart, He never wears out. He is the LOVE in I Corinthians 13:4-7. He merges the heart and brain to sustain the soul. He is our Savior. Take heart.
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