The Human Heart Series 2: Chains

Chains of the Human Heart

The human heart chases after this permanent love in the things or people of the world.

To show this, I want to use the analogy of a foundation. The permanent love that is necessary is like a rock on which one can stand. Yet, we stand on a foundation of sand.

“It is love alone that gives worth to all things.” - Teresa of Avila

The worth we feel we have can come from the things or people we love or value. Oftentimes, we find our worth in certain things that society conditions us to find valuable such as clothing, intelligence, money, beauty, followers on Instagram, and/or friends.

If our worth comes from the very entity (object or person) that we love, then what happens when that entity (object or person) is unstable? If we seek to find our worth in things outside of us that are prone to change, how do we hope to be happy? People are unstable, their moods change, and their opinions change, and we wonder, are we good enough? Clothing trends change; the way people see beauty changes. In certain tribes, sharpening one’s teeth is considered a symbol of beauty just as doing our eyebrows is a symbol of beauty in our culture. If our worth or value is drawn from our beauty which can change depending on popular opinion or with time, or with an injury, we are unstable. If we assign truth to the world’s understanding of beauty, then this subjective and unstable process will leave us empty.

Because the very nature of our existence desires relationship, we must be in relationship with one whose view of us is not prone to change or prone to instability. Human beings cannot fit into this description because they are prone to change in matter and in thought and in opinion nor can any object or anything in the world be truly immutable. Because the very things in the world are subject to time and space, they are prone to change. Therefore, if the truth of who we are is dictated by the things of this world, we are prone to fall because our mind rests on a foundation of sand. Yet, if our foundation is built on Truth that is beyond time and space, we are secure.

For example, when we attach our value to our beauty, then, on the day our beauty is not consistent with subjective or changing standards we have adopted to define beauty, then our mind is racing with thoughts. Thoughts that question worth and our mental framework of defining our beauty. This will actualize into feelings of insecurity or anxiety. These feelings can then affect our actions by affecting our ability to present effectively in a group or converse with others. It can affect our responses when a group is complimenting the beauty of another male or female. This prevents the full expression of the human person and bears negative results in relationships with one another. If our worth is based on instability and subjective definitions of beauty or other factors, we are no longer able to express ourselves or give of ourselves as a gift in relationship to others. Within this lack of security, we are consumed by our anxious thoughts. We are left with a mind that is like a critic whose standards of judgment are unstable and based on the opinion of others. In this mind, we sink.

What does a mind actualized in the truth of God encounter?

Read More Here: Freedom of the Human Heart