Hearts and Matters

As I mentioned in my previous post, the emotional heart is a delicate thing, and it can be injured easily. The emotional heart is also something that cannot be quantified; that is, it is difficult to measure a person’s emotional state. I can order a test that shows the function of the heart in electrical terms (the EKG), and a test that shows the function of the heart in physcial terms (the echocardiogram), and I can measure the function of the heart in terms of power and fitness (a stress test). But the state of your emotional heart cannot be measured in any way that I know of. It requires talking, and observing, and spending time with someone.

My own heart can be difficult for others to observe and measure, depending on how good I am at hiding my emotions. However, someone who gets to know me will be able to spend just a short time with me and say, “Okay, what’s the matter? What’s going on with you today?” They are not observing test results to arrive at this conclusion; it is a matter of knowing and paying attention to me.

Bob Bennett, from his 1982 album, Matters Of The Heart, has two songs that look at this topic in various ways. As I read the words, I don’t feel like I get the same impact that I do when I hear it with the music, so be sure to read the words while the song is playing. The way he crafts his song is a reminder to me that the song writers are the poets of our generation. A hundred and fifty years ago, Bennett would possibly been writing poetry for a magazine or to published in book form. In the modern era, the poets find ways to put their works to song, and the result had more impact that the written word alone would have had.

This post actually includes two songs from Bennett’s album. The title song comes first, and then the final song of the album, Heart Of The Matter.

And now, Heart Of The Matter, which starts with one theme, and then returns to the theme of the previous song.

Tags: Bob Bennett, heart, renewal

There are many things that cause damage to a person’s heart. A blocked artery leads to changes that can cause death or disability. A weakened heart muscle can result from one of those arterial blockages, or possibly from a disease that directly affects the heart muscle. In all of these situations, the result is a pump that doesn’t work effectively, and the rest of the body is limited because of this damage. Sometimes that damage is so profound that the only solution is a heart transplant.

We also have an emotional “heart” that can be damaged. We say, “My heart is broken”, referring not to the physical pump in the chest, but to this emotional center that feels like it comes from that area. Most likely it is because emotion and stress indirectly affects the heart rate, and we feel the effect it has on our pump. No matter; the point is, there is this place of emotion that we feel in the chest, and it can hurt without any physical damage being done to the pump.

Bob Ayala, on his 1985 album Rescued, included a song called Heart Of Steel. It specifically deals with the tragedy of sexual abuse, and the effect it can have on an innocent young person. It can result in that person having a “hard” heart, one that they have intentionally closed off from the rest of the world, to attain protection from the pain that those memories cause. Read the words carefully; it shows how God still loves us intensely and personally, regardless of what damage we have suffered in our lives. He wants to come and replace that hard heart with a heart of flesh, and show us His love, real love. Can you hear Him calling to you today?

Tags: Bob Ayala, healing, heart, pain

Remember the story of Aladdin and his magic lamp? There are various versions of it in circulation, but the basic story is that Aladdin finds a lamp with a genie who can grant wishes. Back home with it, his mother (not recognizing its value) is tricked by a door-to-door salesman into trading the genie-enhanced lamp for a nicer-looking, non-magical lamp. The salesman knew about the value of Aladdin’s lamp, and offered the better looking (but worthless) copy to try to gain that treasure. The pitch he gave was, “New lamps for old! New lamps for old!” It was as deceptive as the line you might read today in an e-mail today, one that promises you a portion of $17 million dollars if you will just give your bank account number so that it can be deposited.

History is full of shady agents out to separate fools from their money, or leaders who have deceived crowds into following them in a war of conquest of a neighbor who had something that they wanted. But in spite of these bad examples, there have also been many, many honest businessmen or politicians who have truly wanted to provide their customers or subjects with a quality product or quality leadership.

Jesus, in his role as a salesman, did his best to explain to a teacher of the law in Israel what it was like to be part of the kingdom of God. In John 3:1-21 you can find the full details of his sales pitch. He told this Pharisee about being “born again” through God’s Spirit, and the change to a person’s life that happened when he was exposed to the light of God. He also told the Pharisee that when truth entered his life, the results could be plainly seen by all. The change on on the inside resulted in a visible change on the outside.

Wayne Watson released an album in 1982 called New Lives For Old. The title track of that album tells the story of someone who was radically changed by his encounter with Jesus. Like the salesman in the story of Aladdin, he was offering something new in exchange for something old; but unlike the Aladdin story, this new thing was the real thing, and it was worth everything to an old carnival man. This clip was taken from The Larry Black Show, so Larry has some comments at the end.

Tags: Life, Wayne Watson

Have you ever felt so excited about something that you couldn’t contain yourself? You just had to tell your friend, your neighbor, the person you met while walking down the street? This news you had was just too good to keep inside. It was like something that was bursting out of you that you couldn’t control!

The Joy that Jesus brings to my life is like that sometimes. Almost like a geyser, the Spirit bursts forth from me, usually in songs that I know, and that Joy comes out with it. It is literally energizing to have this happen, and spend the next several hours with music coming out in hums and whistles and fragments of song.

Jesus talks about this in the Gospel of John, chapter 7, verses 37 to 39: “On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.’ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.”

This “living water” that Jesus spoke of, the Holy Spirit, is obviously so much more than just a song. But His work in your spirit could be through tears and repentance, or through joy and song. And I know that one way in which He works (at least in me) is to bring back to my remembrance Scripture that I’ve learned in the past — or possibly a song. And regardless of how He chooses to work in me today, it gives me something I can use to water the thirsty land around me, if I choose to let it flow!

Denny Correll released an album in 1979, Standin’ In The Light. One of the tracks on that album, Living Water is a joyful song that explains what I’ve said above in different words. Enjoy!

Tags: Denny Correll, Joy, Life, water