Waking the Dead: The Glory of a Heart Fully Alive
Chapter 3
The Heart of All Things
Key Verse: Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life (Prov. 4:23)
Eldridge starts this chapter by pointing out that the movie version of The Wizard of Oz leaves out a very important detail about the tin woodsman, and that is that the woodsman was once a real man. The wicked witch destroyed the man, by causing him to have accidents and slowly replacing his human parts with metal parts. When she caused him to cut himself in his mid-section and was able to remove his heart, she had won the victory she desired, because the tin man no longer loved. Eldridge then offers this quote:
Baum’s mythic tale reminds us that the Enemy knows how vital the heart is, even if we do not, and all his forces are fixed upon its destruction. For if he can disable or deaden your heart, then he has effectively foiled the plan of God, which was to create a world where love reigns. By taking out your heart, the Enemy takes out you, and you are essential to the Story.
You’ll notice he’s been rather effective.
I find it almost hard to believe a case must b e made that the heart is…well, at the heart of it all. Of life. Of each person. Of God. And of Christianity. But our Enemy has come against us, and now we are all in some way like the Tin Woodman. We, too, have suffered a series of blows over time. And we, too, have seized upon efficiency, busyness, and productivity as the life we will live instead. Now we are lost. Dazed. Sleepwalking through life. In order to find our way out of these woods, we must return to the heart. (Pages 38-39)
??? How does Eldridge’s analogy of the Tin Woodman speak to your life at this time?
THE HEART IS CENTRAL
The heart is central. That we would even need to be reminded of this only shows how far we have fall end from the life we were meant to live—or how powerful the spell has been. The subject of the heart has been addressed in the Bible more than any other topic—more than works or service, more than belief or obedience, more than money, even more than worship. Maybe God knows something we’ve forgotten. But of course—all those other things are matters of the heart. Consider a few passages.
Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength (Deut. 6:5) [Jesus called this the greatest of all the commandments—and notice the heart comes first.]
Man looks at the outward appearance, but he LORD looks at the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7)
Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Luke 12:34)
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. (Prov. 3:5)
Your word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against You. (Ps. 119:11 NASB)
These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. (Matthew 15:8)
For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. (2 Chronicles 16:9)
All a man’s ways seem right to him, but the LORD weighs the heart. (Prov. 21:2)
According to the Scriptures, the heart can be troubled, wounded, pierced, grieved, even broken. How well we all know that. Thankfully, it can also be cheerful, glad, merry, joyful, rejoicing. The heart can be whole or divided—as in that phrase we often use, “Well, part of me wants to, but the other part of me doesn’t.” It can be wise or foolish. It can be steadfast, true, upright, stout, valiant. (All of these descriptions can be found by perusing the listings for the word heart in any concordance. ….. The Bible sees the heart as the source of all creativity, courage, and conviction. It is the source of our faith, our hope, and of course, our love. It is the “wellspring of life” within us (Proverbs 4:23), the very essence of our existence, the center of our being, the fount of our life. (Pages 39-40)
??? -- What do you make of all these references to the heart, and the heart’s role in our walk with the LORD?
Eldridge points out that many people’s hearts are not in their work, their marriages, and that many people are depressed and discouraged because they have lost heart? He says that many can’t break free of addictions because somewhere along the way, in a moment of carelessness or desperation, we gave our heart away, and now we can’t get it back. Then he concludes with this quote:
There is no escaping the centrality of the heart. God knows that; it’s why he made it the central theme of the Bible, just as he placed the physical heart in the center of the human body. The heart is central; to find our lives, we must make it central again. (Page 40)
??? – With what parts of Eldridge’s comments here does your heart “resonate”?
REASON AND EMOTION
The mind receives and process information:
The boiling point of water is 212 degrees Fahrenheit
Lincoln was our 16th president.
The heart knows and wrestles with realities:
Your son is missing in combat
God has heard your prayers.
The mind deals in abstractions:
2+2=4
You should get an oil change every 3,000 miles
Eldridge points out that while the mind is a beautiful gift of God, that it only processes information. It cannot tell you what to do with it. An example: It is now 2:00 a.m. and your daughter has not returned, for the car is not in the driveway. Your heart wrestles with whether or not it is cause for worry.
KEY QUOTE: (Page 41) The heart lives in the far more bloody and magnificent realities of living and dying and loving and hating. That’s why those who live from their minds are detached from life. Things don’t seem to touch them very much; they puzzle at the way others are so affected by life, and they conclude others are emotional and unstable. Meanwhile, those who live from the heart find those who live from the mind…unavailable. Yes, they are physically present. So is your computer. This is the sorrow of many marriages, and the number one disappointment of children who feel entirely missed or misunderstood by their parents. Yes, the heart is the source of our emotions. But we have equated the heart with emotion, and put it away for a messy and even dangerous guide. No doubt, many people have made a wreck of their lives by following an emotion without stopping to consider whether it was a good idea to do so. Neither adultery nor murder is a rational act. But equating the heart with emotion is the same nonsense as saying that love is a feeling. Surely, we know that love is more than feeling loving; for if Christ had followed his emotions, he would not have gone to the cross for us. Like any man would have been, he was afraid; in fact, he knew that the sins of the world would be laid upon him, and so he had even greater cause for hesitation (Mark 14:32-35). But in the hour of his greatest trial, his love overcame his fear of what loving would cost him.
??? – What is the impact of recognizing that the we cannot equate the heart with emotions, and thus putting the role of the heart in its proper place?
MOTIVES
KEY QUOTE: (Pages 43-44) You’ll notice that those who live from their minds shed few tears. I wonder if that isn’t the real reason they choose to hide there. For when we’re honest, we’ll admit that there are our stated reasons for doing any of the things we do, and then there are our real reasons. We call them our motives. Your wife asks you why you turned to look at the pretty young thing in the tight jeans, and you defend yourself by saying that she only reminded you of Aunt Ruth. Yes, and people put radar detectors in their cars because they want to make sure they’re maintaining the speed limit…. What makes the Day of Judgment so unnerving is that all our posing and all our charades will be pulled back, all secrets made known, and our Lord will “expose the motives of men’s hearts” (1 Corinthians 4:5, emphasis added.)… A person’s character is determined by his motives, and motive is always a matter of the heart. This is what Scripture means when it says that man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. God doesn’t judge us by our looks or our intelligence; he judges us by our hearts.
??? – When Eldridge emphasizes that we all have our stated reasons for doing things and our real reason for doing them, how does that strike you? Why?
THE THOUGHTS OF THE HEART
KEY QUOTE: (Page 44-45.) According to Scripture, the heart is also where we do our deepest thinking. “Jesus, knowing what they were thinking in their hearts,” is a common phrase in the Gospels. This might be most surprising to those who have accepted the Great Modern Mistake that “the mind equals reason and the heart equals emotion.” Most people believe that… What popular nonsense. Solomon is remembered as the wisest man ever, and it was not because of the size of his brain. Rather, when God invited him to ask for anything in all the world, Solomon asked for a wise and discerning heart (1 Kings 3:9)…. Our deepest thoughts are held in our hearts. Remember, when the shepherds reported the news that a company of angels had brought them out in the field, Mary “pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19), as you might do when some news of great import keeps you up in the middle of the night….It is the thoughts and intents of the heart that shape a person’s life.”….The Apostle Paul drives this home… “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus, is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your hear that you believe and are justified.” (Rom. 10:9-10) Read that again more slowly. “It is with your heart that you believe.” Where does saving faith come from? The heart. Which raises a troubling reality for all of us: you do not belong to God, you are not a Christian at all, until you engage your heart, believe with your heart.
??? – What are the implications for us when so many Americans have learned to trust their minds instead of their hearts for nearly everything?
MEMORY, CREATIVITY, COURAGE
Eldridge contends that our memory, creativity and courage all come from the heart, concluding that the word courage itself, comes from the Old French “cuer”, which came from the Latin “cor” which means heart. This battle for the heart is going to take all the courage you can muster.” (Page 47)
THE POINT OF ALL LIVING
Eldridge starts this section by writing a list of the things he loves, and then states, “Everything you love is what makes a life worth living.” He then urges the reader to take a moment, set down the book and make a list of all the things you love. He concludes that “A life filled with loving is a life most like the one that God lives, which is life as it was meant to be (Eph. 5:1-2) And loving requires a heart alive and awake and free.” Pages 47-48.
KEY QUOTE: Page 48-49. The heart is the connecting point, the meeting place between any two persons. The kind of deep soul intimacy we crave with God and with others can be experienced only form the heart. We don’t want to be someone’s project; we want to be the desire of their heart. May lamented, “By worshiping efficiency, the human race has achieved the highest level of efficiency in history, but how much have we grown in love? We’ve done the same to our relationship with God. Christians have spent their whole lives mastering all sorts of principles, done their duty, carried on the programs of their church…and never known God intimately, heart to heart. There is that troubling passage Jesus gives us when he says that in the final account of our lives, some folks who did all sorts of Christian things will be genuinely surprised not to be invited into heaven. It reads, “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not’” do all sorts of Christian things? Amazing things? And Christ will say, “I never knew you” (Matt. 7:22-23) The point is not the activity—the point is intimacy with God. Attend a class and take in information; then use that information to change the way you live. None of that will bring you into intimacy with God, just as taking a course on anatomy won’t help you love your spouse. “You will find me,” God says, “when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jer. 29:13)….You cannot be the person God meant you to be, and you cannot live the life he meant you to live, unless you live from the heart.
??? – Eldridge’s key point here is that it is our relationship not our rituals that demonstrate our love for God. How do you relate to that concept?
THE MISSION
KEY QUOTE: Page 49. This is absurd. I’m trying to tell you why you should breathe. “Remember now—oxygen is crucial to your body’s needs. All of the other functions depend on it. You should get plenty of oxygen every moment of every day. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. Wonderful! Now remember to do this every moment of every day.” All my defense here seems so far form the actual experience of having your heart back. Go fall in love then. Do something heroic; save someone’s life. Spend a month in some breathtaking spot, doing nothing productive at all. Take up painting. Have yourself a good laugh—the kind that sends tears down your face and makes you grip your side for the ache of it. Listen to a beautiful peace of music. Live with courage. Tuck your child into bed; listen to her prayers, kiss her cheek. Find God. Then you will remember again that the heart is central. Not the mind, not the will. The heart.
Eldridge then goes on to point out that the heart of Jesus’ mission is to give us back our hearts and set us free! That is why the glory of God is man fully alive: it’s what he said he came to do. But of course the opposite can’t be true. “The glory of God is man barely making it, a person hardly alive.” How can it bring God glory for his very image, his own children, to remain so badly marred, broken, captive? Alert and oriented times zero? How we’ve overlooked this is one of the great mysteries of our times. It is simply diabolical, despicable, downright evil that the heart should be so misunderstood, maligned, feared, and dismissed. But there is our clue again. The war we are in would explain so great a loss. This is the last thing the Enemy wants you to know. His plan from the beginning was to assault the heart, just as the Wicked Witch did to the Tin Woodman. Make them so busy, they ignore the heart. Wound them so deeply, they don’t want a heart. Twist their theology, so they despise the heart. Take away their courage. Destroy their creativity. Make intimacy with God impossible for them. Of course your heart would be the object of a great and fierce battle. It is your most precious possession. Without your heart you cannot have God. Without your heart you cannot have love. Without your heart you cannot have faith. Without your heart you cannot find the work that you were meant to do. In other words, without your heart you cannot have life. The question is, Did Jesus keep his promise? What has he done for our hearts? The answer will astound you.
??? – Do you believe that Jesus’ primary mission was to restore our hearts? Why or Why not?