"more than all else, keep watch over your heart, since here are the wellsprings of life."
[proverbs 4:23]
i wasn't really a youth group kid--but i did go a handful of times in high school, and it seemed like every time i went, the "talk" was on relationships and "guarding your heart." so, i kind of just assumed that this verse's sole purpose was for navigating relationships when you are in your teens and are stressing about who you're going to go to the next formal with.
how nice would that be? if once we graduated high school or reached our twentieth birthday we could check this one off the list? or once we got engaged or married?
turns out, there's a lot more to guarding our hearts than teen dating. even the phrase makes me cringe a bit--there's something about "churchy" language that has never sat with me too well.
but, i think the point is-- there are a whole slew of things that can keep us from living the life we were created to live. i have to be constantly checking in and having honest evaluations with God, releasing the things that are making my heart hard: bitterness. anger. putting our hope in the future. dwelling in the past. envy. creating expectations. (and that's just some examples of things i have found in myself in the past few weeks...)
i absolutely believe that Jesus was 100% for real when he said he came to bring life, and life to the full. and to actually start living that kind of life, we need to allow ourselves to be released from all this crap that holds us down-- realize that it's our own fault we're knee deep in muck in the first place. grab hold of the freedom that is offered to us fresh each day and moment and let Jesus pull us out of the disaster we so easily make our life into.
the question is do we want this freedom enough to let go?
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