Keep Heart
Along with roughly ten percent of all Americans, I have been looking for a job. Early on it’s easy to be optimistic. We often view it as an opportunity for bigger and better things despite it being a daunting task. We dig around and find some job opportunities that generate genuine excitement within us. We apply, apply and apply…then wait, wait, and wait. Time passes and for some reason or another those opportunities don’t pan out. It can be so disheartening.
We keep on keeping on a little worse for the wear. However, after another extended round or two of ‘apply and wait’ we may find ourselves on the brink of severe disappointment if not depression. We easily slide into a funk.
Beyond job searching, this cycle can happen with life in general. Whether we are dealing with difficult relationships at home or work, bad habits, addictions, general economic strife, persecution, severe illness, or loss. We spiral down to the point of questioning everything; our identity, value, abilities, intelligence, strength or lack there of, others…and God.
We lose heart.
The ‘heart’ I am referring to is the central organ of our soul. It serves as the seat for our deepest thoughts, desires, emotions, affections, intentions, etc. This complex mixture creates the unique you-ness that is you. Living from your heart means living from your authentic self. So, to lose heart is to lose one’s self, and that is tragic.
In the recent remake of Alice in Wonderland The Mad Hatter says something to Alice upon her entrance into Wonderland that suits this situation. He says, “You were much muchier last time I saw you, you’ve lost your muchness.” In the context of our heart, when we lose heart we lose our muchness, the weight of who we are. We no longer act as ourselves.
Maybe this is why the Bible says so much about our heart. The writers used the term ‘heart’ in some form over eight hundred times. Much of this heart talk has to do with guarding our heart from all sorts of trouble, including losing our heart. Summing it up, the Bible advises that we fight for our heart and the hearts of others.
So, how do we keep heart? – Hope.
We fight for our hearts with hope. Keeping heart means keeping hope. Simply defined, hope is confident expectation. Keeping heart means confidently expecting God’s presence when we sense our heart is slipping or is long gone. We hope to experience God in the midst of our heartache or heart attack. We hope to grasp a smidgen of redemptive purpose or catch a glimpse of eternal perspective. We hope for a refreshing shower in God’s grace...daily would be nice.
More practically, we hope for divine guidance in order to continually realign our priorities. Remember, wherever your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Maybe we have put our hope in something that simply cannot deliver. Misaligned priorities knock our heart out of rhythm.
Hope helps our heart regain its rhythm.
If hope is confident expectation, then what is it that we expect? …God? Yes. More specifically we expect God’s love. We so badly need to know that we are loved despite the state of our lives or hearts. God’s perfect love drives away fear leaving us with real peace. Our ruthless trust in God’s love buoys our sinking hearts to peacefully roll with the waves no matter how high they become. Tenacious hope leads us into God’s love and restores our hearts.
Hang in there. Keep heart. The world needs your muchness.