The Heart is Like a Ship
For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. -Jesus, Matthew 6:43-45
In the early church St. Augustine taught, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”
Martin Luther wrote:
For the heart of man is like a ship upon a troubled ocean, driven about by winds from every corner of the earth. Care and fear, under the apprehension of impending evils, impel it one way; grief and fear, under the influence of present distress, impel it another; hope and presumption, and the prospect of future prosperity, another; the actual possession of prosperity and the breezes of security and of pleasure, another.
C.S. Lewis famously penned:
It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. ―The Weight of Glory, and Other Addresses
The concept of heart is something we know, and yet we have a hard time wrapping our mind around it. We know that our emotions are deep rooted, that our hearts store up hurt, pain, sorrow, gladness, bitterness, anger, wrath, joy, and so much more. Our hearts can be light as a feather, floating on air one minute then crushed by the words of another the next.
This is what Luther was alluding to in his writings. Our being tossed about like a ship reminds me of Ephesians 4:14: “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind.”
This leads me to pondering what Carson taught a few weeks ago about how we are in need of a foundation, and how Augustine rightfully points out that the heart will be restless until it finds its rest in the LORD. The heart will be rooted in something. What is your heart (or my heart) being rooted in?
What is our foundation? Where are we looking to find rest? Why are we against looking for whole-hearted joy in the Lord instead of the half-hearted silliness Lewis refers to?
Every person has the choice to produce good or evil with the life they live. But we, as believers in Christ and those whom the Holy Spirit indwells, are called to a different way of living and a deeper understanding of the effects of the heart.
What does your heart hold dear? Some of those things are good things like family, the church, sunshine, sand between your toes. But what about the things our hearts hold dear that we need to uproot: pride, selfishness, laziness, bitterness? If we truly take time to examine what lies in our hearts and what we store there, does it follow these guidelines of Paul: “whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things”?
Or are we content to play with our mud pies and not see the glory of the Lord that He is willing to reveal?
If we want to be people who bring honor and glory to the Lord, what are we doing to align our hearts with that mission? Where are we putting our time, effort, resources? These things will impact what is being stored up in our hearts.
I know this has mostly been me throwing quotes at you as I have pulled you along with me on my train of thought, but let me leave you with one last verse.
Let the one who is wise heed these things and ponder the loving deeds of the Lord. – Psalm 107:43
Psalm 107 is the retelling of God’s faithfulness to his people; this is what the author instructs us to heed (another version says pay attention). If we desire to be wise, then we must heed the advice found within the pages of scripture. We take into our hearts the works and words of the Lord. We give ourselves time and space to consider and ponder the love of the Lord. We think about and dwell on the kindness of our Savior. We take time to pull these things into our hearts, so that our hearts will not be tossed about or settle for lesser things; instead, we truly seek and find rest in the only place we can: our Father.
