Follow My Heart?

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9

Yesterday, at jail Bible study, I floated this idea to the guys. Just follow your heart. They all laughed, but it was not a funny-laugh. It was a that is stupid-laugh. They know what Jeremiah knew when he wrote today’s passage: We often desire things that are really bad for us.

My heart is not always wrong. Just because I desire something does not automatically mean it’s bad. My heart tells me that I love my wife and children. My heart though, is wrong often enough that it is a terrible guide. The problem, is that when I really want something, I convince myself that thing is right, even when everyone else can see it’s wrong.

The truth is, our appetites, our desires, and our passions, are a terrible guide to what is healthy, constructive, and right for us. The guys in jail know this all too well. Though it seemed right at the time, looking back, it’s all too obvious to them now, that they pursued what they wanted, only to find disaster.

The problem, most of the time, is that our passions and desires are not obviously that bad. Most of us are not in danger of incarceration. We crave things that aren’t illegal, even though they may be profoundly destructive to our spiritual life. We pursue lust, power, money, work, affirmation, pride, or stuff, because we really, really want it right now. We have a passionate desire for a thing and we impulsively act on it enough that we become enslaved to it. Blindly following our heart is a sure route to addictive, destructive behavior.

Our hearts are not always wrong, but to know if a thing is right or wrong, we must filter it through God. He, not the heart, is the measure of good and evil. One the greatest joys in life is when our desires are in line with God’s desires, but to find ourselves in this condition, we must continually ask if we are following him or our hearts. Following my heart is disaster. Following God is life.