That Will Stay

Remember the show Clean House? Simple premise:  a work crew would help families - swallowed by stuff - regain their lives and homes.   Although I didn’t have stuff taking up every square inch of my home, whenever I watched this show, something inside felt very familiar.  When the subconscious message finally broke through to the conscious part of my mind, it was a classic “duh” moment.

Humans are extremely complex when taken as a whole. It’s helpful, when working with people (yourself included), to separate that whole into more manageable systems.  I see five distinct – separate but united – areas: bodies, souls, minds, hearts and spirits.  Physicians, personal trainers, chefs, and parents are some of the professions  focusing on the physical needs of the human body.  Educators, philosophers, psychologists, counselors, and parents are a few examples of those primarily concerned with developing the mind.  In the book of Hebrews we learn that issues of the soul are what pastors (and parents) deal with, while  God, Himself, works on human spirits. But, the heart is an area that is the sole responsibility of individuals themselves.  In Proverbs 4:23 we are instructed to, “Keep your heart with all diligence for out of it springs the issues of life.”  NKJV    

What is the heart?  Referenced nearly 1,000 times in the Bible, I’m lead to believe the heart is a big deal.   Jesus tells us exactly what the heart’s function is when explaining  the sower parable in Luke 8 "…The seed is the word of God… then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts…"  The heart is where beliefs grow; and it doesn’t take a PhD in psychology to know that not every belief flourishing in the hearts of humanity is worthy of the real estate it holds. 

Just like those television programs that featured families whose houses were overrun with clutter and stuff, our hearts  become overwhelmed with beliefs that no longer (if ever) serve our lives in positive, constructive, beautiful ways.  The inexplicable draw to those shows was my heart’s silent cry for me to  attend to my responsibility for its  keeping.  Like a homeowner deciding what goes and stays in their effort to build a home of peace and beauty one item at a time; we must decide what is permitted  in our hearts - one belief at a time.  The heart-owner is the only one authorized to make those decisions.