The Heart of the Matter

The heart of the home. The recording studio was set up in the corner of a front bedroom, where it was vulnerable to all sorts of sound incursions, including rain, wind, and birdsong. Needing to create a more sound-proof environment for Mhairi to record an audio book, we settled on the walk-in closet in our bedroom. Securely built into the interior of the house, tucked away under a staircase, with no windows nor even outside walls, this closet, we hope, will prove ideal.

Proverbs 4 has something to say about the heart. ‘Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.’ I recently had a scan, and the doctor explained that the rib cage is designed to protect the vulnerable organs like kidneys and spleen, but above all else, the heart.

The world is filled with cacophonic sound. Some ideas are obvious denials of truth, but others are subtly nuanced. We are constantly tempted to accept or even embrace perversions of truth.

A ribcage of relationship with Jesus through the Holy Spirit; a ribcage of scriptural truths; a ribcage of a network of relationships with other believers (otherwise known as church): these are what we need to guard our hearts. Otherwise, we are open to many noises off, where we are not recording the purity of God’s love and truth, but rather becoming deformed by the distortions peddled by the world.

Guard my heart today, o Lord.