I am troubled with how often we think with our hearts and not with our heads. Yesterday in an interview following the conclusion of the President’s Cup, the young fellow who scored the winning match made an interesting statement. He was a bit choked up with emotion and said something to the effect, “I shouldn’t be so emotional, it's only golf”. This puts young Bill Haas pretty high on my list of guys who are getting life straight.
To put it from another similar perspective, I find it strange that I have such difficulty not getting inordinately upset over things like a football game when my favorite team is playing. I tell myself, “settle down, it just isn’t all that important”. And yet my heart continues to dominate.
Now in these two examples we may say that it isn’t all that earth shattering, but it causes me to think about other areas where I may be just simply getting it wrong. What if as a husband and father, I am so consumed by the pursuit of my career that I neglect my wife and children? Or even worse, if I become so engrossed in a love for hunting and fishing that I neglect what ought to be my true priorities? I could continue to add to this list the stupid things we do, like encouraging our kids in sports while neglecting their spiritual training.
Is there any dependable standard to which I may submit my heart and thoughts so that I may safely assess them with objectivity? The good news is that there is such a standard. That standard is found in the Word of God. Unless we are daily meeting with God through his Word we hazard the great misuse of life. Wisdom, correct values and priorities are found only in His Word and it takes a vigilant daily habit of reading and exposing ourselves to the Word to keep things straight because the “heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked”.
