Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.
Proverbs 4: 23
We have just rung in the new year. 2010 still feels brand new to the touch, a little unfamiliar yet for the lack of days. It smells brand new too, like an alluring perfume that suggests so much potential and possibility. After the upheavals of the past year, we are all looking forward to entering a hopeful stretch, an upbeat phrase, after the sharpness of our “before”. We won’t take pessimism for an answer because we remember that after the storm is stillness; and past the dark hour is the dawn.
All this is true. Does God test us beyond our capacity? Doesn’t he remember that we are frail, dusty creatures that collapse at too much pressure? God cares for us, the psalmist says, and is mindful of us in spite of our being, or rather, because we are, a handful of dust. He promises that we will not be overtaken by evil surprises because our lives are laid in the very palm of his hand, and his eye is always upon us.
Yet we know that the vicissitudes and vagaries of life work on us. Christians, above all else, struggle to maintain this balance between God’s providence and vigilance on our behalf, and the realisation that we too are vulnerable to what life doles out to the human race. How do we navigate our path then, to ensure that our hopes remain uncrushed, our strength and vision undimmed, even if 2010 turns out to be less than ideal?
Proverbs 4: 23 instructs us to “guard” our heart, for from it life (and liveliness, and aliveness) comes. What does it mean? The word “heart” means everything that is in us. It refers to our “inner being” or person, and covers our mental and emotional capacity as well as our values. Guard that, Proverbs says, and you will find yourself on the way of wisdom. And that is the way of life.
Often we read these proverbs as verses describing the righteous path versus the wicked path. We are enjoined to take the right path for obvious reasons. Forsake ev il, and pursue good. All this is true. But how does the Christian work this out in life? What is this “righteous path” that we are already on as believers? Is it only a matter of going down the list of do’s and dont’s? What happens when we follow the right path and are still buffeted by the most atrocious winds of dire circumstances that threaten us with evil dissipation and discord?
Beyond the Good vs. Evil contrast, something else rings true about the righteous path too. If we take the righteous path, we will find that our passion for life and living will be protected, and our vision for our work will be undimmed—even in the midst of awful situations. Our wellspring of life, if we guard it well, will overflow with life itself, regardless of external surroundings. The thing about good is that with it comes … good. Really good things, like joy and peace, love and compassion. These follow after the righteous ones (see Psalm 23: 6) and cannot be determined by merely outward scenarios. Their focus is inward, and similarly, the instruction from Proverbs to guard our heart stems from what is innermost in us.
But what essentially is the “righteous path” anyway? Take away from the do’s and dont’s that Christians are (in-)famous for, what else is there? Proverbs 3: 5 gives us the answer that we already know: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.” Guarding the wellspring of our life means the same thing as “trusting in the Lord with all your heart …” Again, Christians are (in-)famous for destroying this wise word with brainless applications. We think that God instructs us to do stupid things. Since we are not to “lean on our own understanding”, we imagine God is without any understanding at all and approves of human stupidity!
Proverbs 3: 5 and 4: 23 say nothing of this sort. What they mean is that we are to anchor our soul, our understanding and our hope in the Person we call “Lord”. If we trust in this “Lord”, we will find ourselves on safe ground whether in fact, our circumstances look or feel safe. We will find our wellsprings overflowing with life and liveliness, even if our circumstances look and feel like deserts. Our impetus no longer comes from the outside, from shallow streams and occasional rivers. Rather, we derive our life and strength from somewhere within, from artesian wells deep within that link us with the everlasting waters of life. We are still held together with an inner integrity that outside forces cannot dissipate.
The fact is, artesian wells do not dry up just because the sun is too hot. They continue to flow with pure and fresh water regardless of what happens in the world above. If we need to prove anything this year, it is this: we are like these artesian wells because we have tapped into such deep and unending springs that there will never be a lack in us that will take away our joy of life. We are just not constituted that way.
