Guard Your Heart (Prov 4:23)

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life - Proverbs 4:23

The modern scientific paradigm we have been born into in the Western world has given us many things - technology, medicine, and airplanes just to name a few.

But there is something else that modern science has given us (albeit inadvertently) that is often overlooked: a way of seeing reality.

Without much thought, we assume that we are in here and reality is out there. We measure, dissect, and analyze the world around us, thinking we are making progress in understanding the nature of reality – because we have adopted a definition of reality as "that which science is capable of measuring."

According to this worldview, the most real things are the most measurable things: things such as rocks, protons, and planets.

Therefore, when it comes to life, what matters most to us is what happens - what is the physical, tangible, documentable string of events that occurred? The meaning of the event is largely irrelevant and viewed merely as subjective interpretation. This is because meaning cannot be measured. And if something cannot be measured, in our modern world, we are extremely suspicious of its existence.

This has had the downstream effect of convincing us that what happens to us is the most important thing about our lives. We react based upon our circumstances and we work hard to alter circumstances.

This is all well and good as it goes - there are certainly many bad circumstances in the world and we should work to fix them.

But this idea of our circumstances being the most important thing - is this true? God does not seem to think so.

The one whom we call Lord lived in what can only be considered the worst possible circumstances. He had descended from heaven, which means all He had ever known was perfection. Coming to this world in general, then, would seem bad enough. But to further humble Himself to the point of being willing to be misunderstood, misrepresented, tortured, and executed by the very beings He created - could we possibly even think of worse circumstances?

And yet, Jesus not only walked the proper way of life - He is the Way.

In truth, it matters very little what happens to us. What matters infinitely more is the meaning underneath what is happening to us. Contrary to popular belief, time and space are not what is most real – meaning is.

Meaning is one of the many English words used to express the Greek word Logos. This Logos, this Meaning, is the most real thing in existence, and coming to know it - coming to know Him, the incarnate Logos - is the only way to live fully.

Our proverb tells us to guard our heart. The main thing we must guard against is our culture's all-too-strong tendency to suck the meaning out of life. We have become so busy doing things that we have forgotten why we're doing them. We must seek the meaning in even the bleakest of circumstances, believing that - because of Christ - it is there waiting to be found.

Jesus endured unimaginable suffering, and yet that very suffering was what brought about the salvation of mankind. For the joy set before Him, He endured the Cross and disregarded its shame.

Jesus saw past the physical-temporal circumstances. He saw the deep meaning involved in His mission: fulfillment of His Father's will and salvation for you and me. This is what enabled Him to achieve victory.

If we hope to live in this world rather than just survive, it would be wise to follow His lead.

"Jesus Christ is the object of all things,

the center towards which all things tend.

Whoever knows him knows the reason for everything"

- Blaise Pascal