Hello, my friends!
There’s a poet that I’ve grown to love over the years, George Herbert, who lived in England during the early 17th century. A scholar, who became a country priest, he was also a gifted musician and songwriter. A story is told where Herbert, on the way to play music with some friends, came across a poor man and an even poorer horse in distress and stopped to help them out of the mud and assisted the man in unloading the poor beast. By the time he later joined his friends, he was filthy from head to toe. One of them asked why he had disparaged himself by so dirty an employment. I love Herbert’s answer…that his actions would prove “music to him at midnight.”
Music at midnight! What a lovely way of evaluating our day. Instead of what will give me the most pleasure or make me feel the most comfortable, we ask what will actually make our hearts sing at the end of the day?
There is something so revealing about those evening hours. We are given the opportunity to look back and reflect on the joys and sorrows of the day, the victories and failings, and ask ourselves where God felt near and where He felt distant. How our actions affect what we notice, and how what we notice affects our actions.
Life is such an interesting mix of too much silence, coupled with such chaos and clamor of all types of media. Both can take their toll on the condition of our hearts. What we see and hear can cause us to spiral emotionally, and sometimes we aren’t even aware of it while it is happening.
Scripture tells us to guard our hearts, for they are the wellspring of life. But what are we guarding it against? From anxiety and worry. From anger and blame. From spiraling down the obsessive rabbit hole of conspiracy theories. Instead, we set our minds on things above. “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
But even more than merely dwelling on these, let us seek to live lives that model such description. To pour out into this world beautiful actions that emulate God’s goodness. Let us choose to bring blessing into the midst of the clamor and clutter of the world. When we do, we not only protect our hearts from being polluted, but we bring them to life. And when we do, our hearts sing.