you and your heart

{photo credit: etsy.com}

"the heart is the deep center of our life...it is your most precious possession. without your heart you cannot have God. without your heart you cannot have love. without your heart you cannot have faith. without your heart you cannot find the work you were meant to do. in other words, without your heart you cannot have life." -john eldredge

let it be known that i am not a fan of christian authors who use phrases like, "have faith, and everything will work out." really? someone paid you money to put that in a book? ok, while that is ultimately true, what do i do in the meantime? how does that really help me? can we dive a little deeper? can you give me some real advice? actually, you don't even have to give me a solution, but can you just talk to me as a person who struggles with the same issues that i do?

i just finished reading waking the dead by john eldredge. not once during the book did he say, "let go, and let God." i like him.

the main theme of his writings is how your heart is your most prized and precious possession. out of your heart comes your deepest thoughts, your greatest longings, your irrational but immense fears, your most joyous passions, your pure and your dishonest motives. it is with your heart that you fall in love. it is because you have a heart that you feel ripped open when you are heartbroken. your mind can calculate and explain logically, but even when the answers are tallied up and the facts are presented, your heart still holds your greatest convictions.

{thestir.cafemom.com}

as beautiful as your heart can be, it is also the home of self-doubt, low self-esteem, dishonest motives. God knows that your heart is the window to your soul, but so does the enemy. he knows it is the first place he can attack in order to make you doubt yourself. this happens to me all the dang blasted time. i'll be humming right along, staying busy, being productive, and then, all of a sudden, feelings of guilt will creep in. ammo against my heart. the feelings come in so quickly but are hard to get rid of. i'm learning to recognize that these feelings are not from God. He thinks i am the jam.  He is the one who holds my heart. He is the one who collects my tears and preserves them in a bottle because they are so precious to Him.

"You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in Your bottle. You have recorded each one in Your book."-Psalm 56:8 

(favorite verse of all time.)

{photo credit: etsy.com}

thanks to eldredge and his excellent book-which i highly recommend-i've been thinking a lot about my heart lately. it is my most treasured belonging, gotta take care of it.

bottom line-the heart is life. it's central to who you are. 
just look at all of these neato songs written about it.

you and your heart : jack "the man" johnson
stole my heart : little and ashley
when a heart breaks : ben rector
hold my heart : sara bareilles
shape of my heart : noah and the whale
the heart of life : john "im a jerk, but i'm talented" mayer
when our hearts sing : rush of fools
heartless : kanye west
satellite heart : anya marina
and if my heart should somehow stop : james vincent mcmorrow
all about your heart : mindy gledhill

p.s. i don't have anything against the brain. it's awesome. 1 + 1 = 2.