Where's your Heart?

I went to a women's house church in another gypsy village last night. It was wonderful. The women are so full of love and you could feel such a passion for Jesus in their prayers and worship. They don't have much at all, we sit on the floor or on a bed in their one-roomed homes and cuddle close to the tiny fire they use for the winter, but they're happy. Tears of devotion, love and utter dependency on God stream down their dark cheeks before being wiped away on their dirty, flower-printed skirts. Watching them melts my heart, I can't imagine how Daddy feels. 

Maria shared from the book of Jonah and encouraged everyone to keep an open heart to the things God may ask of us. It truly doesn't matter where you're from, what resources you have or how you line up on the social scale.. God is moving all over the world through open and willing people. God is in love with the suited pastors on Sunday morning in America as much as He is with the woman I met last night, curled up in the corner of the room with her cracked and splintered hands raised ever so slightly in the air. It's fascinating to realize that this is one of the people groups that Jesus Himself loved on when He walked on this earth. What an honor it is to be here in Bulgaria.

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"Thud-thud.. Thud-thud.. Thud-thud"

"For where your heart is, there your treasure will be also." Matthew 6:21

The bright rays of sunlight laser-beamed directly past the windshield and into your squinty eyes as you raced through the bands of rush hour traffic while attempting to avoid hitting the naive hordes of pedestrians. Your eardrums thud intensely to the blaring beat of.. well; actually you're not quite sure what in the universe that noise could be, let alone from where it originated. Swerving between three separate lanes of traffic, you ward off the honking by-riders who angrily motion obscene gestures to your appalling driving skills. What is that sound? After several minutes of near death chaos, you pull over and frantically begin searching in, under, around and on top of your car. Nothing. Suddenly the drumming intensifies as you realize that it's coming from behind the vehicle; in the trunk.

Matthew 6:19-24 is very clear in reiterating the importance of our heart's devotion to particular areas of life and eternity thereafter. Although our heart remains securely settled within the cage of our center being, imaginary wings cause it to float off to areas we might call "desires", "dreams" or "passions". Some of us allow particular breezes to scatter about our heart in different areas so much so that all we find left at the end of the day is a gaping emptiness on the inside of our souls. When earthly heart-destinations take control, we find the end result being death. The only other alternative is to choose to place the well-being of our hearts in the safe hands of an everlasting God who will watch, care for, mature and bless our hearts into life. Where will you find your heart?

Think about this before you unlock and lift up the lid of your trunk. Was that thumping really your heart that found itself settled inside the material possession you call a car all along? Maybe it's rotting beneath the pile of dirty masses of vibrant thread at the bottom of your closet. Maybe it's left soaking through the papers on your desk or in the forgotten hands of your long-lost friend. You decide.