Follow thy heart

I have always heard of people telling other people to follow their heart when they are confused. When people are confused about their relationship, they are told to follow their heart. When people are confused about what to do, they are told to follow their heart. When people are confused about what to say, they are told to follow their heart. When people are confused about what is happening, they are told to follow their heart. They are told being too rational and rationalising things are not the way. They are told thoughts should go through the heart not the brain. They are told to look at the world through their heart, not their brain. Yeah right. This is an era which people think following their heart is the only way, which people say,'I can do it', which people no longer need an anchor in their life, which people just follow their heart's desire. But really, I really have to question, is following the heart a really good thing?

One scenario - A 14 year old girl has a 16 year old boyfriend. One day they are alone in the house and by following their heart, by thinking through their heart, they did 'it'. Second scenario - A married middle age man with children has an affair with another woman. He was confused whether to give up the marriage or the affair, but he listened to his heart and gave up his marriage... and his children. Third scenario - You are a student studying in some tertiary institution. You like someone but you are confused whether to go after him or not. You decided to follow your heart and go after him, therefore forever letting your world revolve just around him, and your studies suffered. Now look at this case when someone just follow his heart. He did not say the wrong thing, but his case is a classic of someone following his heart.

Then Jesus told them, "This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written:
" 'I will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.'
But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee."
Peter replied, "Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will."

"I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times."

But Peter declared, "Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you." And all the other disciples said the same.
- Matthew 26:31-35


And see what happened after that:

Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him. "You also were with Jesus of Galilee," she said.
But he denied it before them all. "I don't know what you're talking about," he said.

Then he went out to the gateway, where another girl saw him and said to the people there, "This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth."

He denied it again, with an oath: "I don't know the man!"

After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, "Surely you are one of them, for your accent gives you away."

Then he began to call down curses on himself and he swore to them, "I don't know the man!"

Immediately a rooster crowed. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: "Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times." And he went outside and wept bitterly.
- Matthew 26:69-75


A case when you say something based on your heart, and found in two circumstances that your heart is contradicting each other. There are a lot of examples and scenarios I can offer to my readers but the problem I want to point out is 'are we really right when we are following our heart?' The answer is 'no'! We cannot be always right when we follow our heart, think with our heart, look at the world through our heart, although we also cannot be always right if we think wholly using our brain, follow our brain and look at the world through what our logical mind perceives.

The human mind represents the rational and logical side of ours and the heart represents the emotional and 'touchy' side of ours. There exists a need to balance both sides. But to do so would have been not sufficient for our daily living. We ourselves as human being are often unable to lead ourselves to make correct decisions. If so, there wouldn't have been so much mistakes in our lifes. Henceforth, there is a need for a guide in our life and more than often, a lot of us turn to religions for our spiritual guide. I and many fellow brothers and sisters decided to turn to Jesus Christ. He said 'I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.'(John 14:6) Therefore, the words of His and the inspired words through His Holy Spirit are able to guide us.

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
- Hebrews 4:12

Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light for my path.
- Psalm 119:105


The Bible is truly the Words of God, written by His vassals many thousand years ago. It truly teaches us how to live our life. With it, it is possible to think with a rational mind and an emotional heart, because it fills up the gaps which our limited human thinking can conceive. With Christ, we are able to look at the world, think about the world, make our decisions based on His guidance, cos His Holy Spirit is living inside our heart if we accept Him as our Lord and Saviour. And I truly believe, we dun look at the world with our heart, we look at it with love. We dun do what our heart tells us to do, we do it with love. We think with love... the love of God and things can never go wrong.

Follow thy heart?

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