Hearts Fixed on True Joy
This is an odd anniversary and milepost for me. It was one year ago today, it was determined that stay-at-home behavior was in play. There was evidence locally, in the Diocese of Texas, and otherwise, we were all entering a new way of operating. Today also marks my vaccine “independence day,” in other words, my second vaccine dose was three weeks ago and I am up to full protection as possible. What odd and difficult times we have endured for the past twelve months. Costly, stressful, there are many ways to describe the year through which we have trudged. We realized experiences of strength and blessing as well.
It was not quite one year ago I started what turned out to be almost daily writings. The first entry was part of a series I called “EMBRACING HOPE.” That one ran for 164 volumes. The current one, called “ENCOURAGEMENT ALONG THE WAY” followed. This is volume 125 of this series, which means this is my 289th entry overall. Honestly, I have never been in an opportunity to apply a writing discipline like this. I recall in my college days filling out a career discernment questionnaire, and one of the strong choices was “journalist.” That did not seem a likely match for me at the time. When I think of how agonizing writing term papers and other assignments was in high school, college, and grad school, I now just do not recognize myself. Writing this “column” has been a help to me, being a freer kind of writing than a school assignment within the pressure of academic life. I want to thank you for reading (both of you) you are very kind.
Enough of that, I am eager to get into thoughts surrounding the lessons for this Sunday, and they have to do with the heart. When literature, certainly the Bible, speaks of the heart, it is often not referring to the muscle in the center of the chest that pumps oxygen-rich blood through our veins. Mentioning the heart is not even a reference simply to the place of emotions. It is, rather, the intersection of our thoughts, feelings, and volition. It is the location of our being itself. Tomorrow I would like to say a few things about how the prophet Jeremiah announces God’s initiative to put the holy law within the people, that is, to “write it on their hearts.” This will make them the true people of God, a restored people of the Covenant.
Today I am absorbing afresh that our hearts are designed to be fixed on the heart of God our Creator. We cleanse our way by keeping to the guidance of the Holy. The Collect for this Sunday reinforces that, when we do this, when we tether our hearts to God’s ways, we find true joys. Our inner selves cry out, “Oh, wow, so this is where I belong. It is wonderful to dwell here.” When our hearts are elsewhere, we find our inner being is as unhappy: as tumultuous as the world—random, chaotic and divided. Think of how it is put in the first lines of the first Book of Augustine’s Confessions: ”Thou awakest us to delight in Thy praise; for Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee.” Only God can remedy such restlessness, which is the premise of our Collect:
Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found. Amen.
As we move through this fifth week in Lent, with just two to go, we are learning ever more deeply that affixing our hearts to God’s promises, treasuring them, does indeed bring joy and fulfillment. Let this Sunday's Psalm be your prayer:
With my whole heart I seek you; *
let me not stray from your commandments.
I treasure your promise in my heart, *
that I may not sin against you.
Blessed are you, O Lord; *
instruct me in your statutes. —Psalm 119:10-12
It has been an unbelievable twelve months, filled with uncertainty and demand for diligence. We have needed the embrace of hope; we have needed encouragement along the way. God is ever faithful to supply both to us. So we take heart together. Great things are ahead, as we hold fast to our Holy Comforter. Your heart is where your body, your emotions, your thoughts and your will all come together. Doesn’t it make sense that, when they come together in congruence with the One who brought us into being, we find completion? Let us pray each of us may always seek God with the whole heart and remain there, where true joys are to be found.