"3 reasons why you must guard your heart" : a blog from Michael Hyatt.

I recently came across this blog post from Michael Hyatt, who is a guru in the realm of leadership and who recently published a book called "Platform" that is making quite a splash.

This blog post, however, brings such humility, humanity, and reality to this big named leader.  Someone with years of experience and who has seen favor throughout his career, points out the incredible importance of the heart.  It just might be one of the most truth-filled and important things I've read in awhile.

Enjoy.

http://michaelhyatt.com/three-reasons-why-you-must-guard-your-heart.html

smitten.

I've always been a tough girl.  I've taken pride in that for a long time.  I can do things myself...you've heard my independence story.  I grew up thinking that feelings, "mushy stuff," and gushing about love and like were ridiculous and for the softees of the world--the weak ones.  Not me.  I'm tough.

God is so awesome.  I just want to say that.

Since I've left home as an 18 year old, God has been softening me.  For awhile it was my incessant prayer that He would.  That He would help me to feel compassion for others, to experience the depth of pain and the height of joy, that He would break me down to ask for help, and that He would help me to receive love.  Romantic or otherwise, it's been difficult for me.  He doesn't give up.  He keeps pursuing hard hearts.

I met up with my friend, Mary, for appetizers last week.  It was a gorgeous fall day.  I spend a few hours at my favorite coffee shop that I had been neglecting.  My play list was off the charts.  I spent an hour or more just digging into Scripture that afternoon.  By the time I met Mary that afternoon, I was glowing.  I had been romanced for the afternoon by the God of the universe.  I had only one word.  Smitten.

Surprised?  Me too. :-)  I'm not really the smitten type.  I've been too tough for that.  But tonight, I sit in my low lit room, with a glass of wine, a scented candle and pretty music in the background as God speaks to me His love and promises through His Word.  He's teaching me to be loved, to have butterflies, to be delighted in and it's awesome.  So awesome.

He's teaching me what it looks like to be pursued and loved so I'll know when it comes.  He pursues me with the colors of fall, quiet moments with sun on my face, serene drives with the windows down, warm coffee drinks, beautiful music, intoxicating breezes, beautiful nights, reality that's too good to be true, and the thoughtfulness of strangers.  He chases me with the things that bring my soul to life--things He only knows I need to feel special.  He's relentless in pursuing the hearts of His children.  I know that the man who pursues me won't do it like God does.  He can't.  But I'm grateful that God is teaching my heart to be loved.

I pray He teaches yours and gives us both an opportunity to love in return both toward Him and the one we wait for.  I pray that once our waiting is done, we will still have eyes open to how our God pursues us as His beloved and continue to be smitten by your Savior.

guarded.

I've settled in at my favorite coffee shop on two different occasions to write this post.  I have started writing probably more than 10 times.  Chai latte at my hand and Derek Webb's Feeback in my ears.  It's the perfect combination of no lyrics and upbeat driving rhythms--perfect for keeping this girl engaged and on task, but not distracted with another set of words in my head.  Regardless of my seemingly ideal conditions for writing, half of my attempts failed because I had ideas that fell flat once I began typing.  They began falling so flat, in fact, that I gave up and decided to try it again another day.  So here I am.  Round 2 with another cup of Chai and Mr. Webb serenading me once again.  Round 2 has provided the second half of failed attempts due to interruptions from Facebook chat.  Seriously.  Every time I turned on the first track to Feedback and pulled up the blank window, I'd hear that intrusive ding.  Yeah, yeah, I know.   Turn it off, right?  That's what I did after time number 5.  I'm a slow learner.  My nights aren't usually so eventful, I promise you.  So here I am.  Uninterrupted and without distraction...except, of course, by my delicious warm beverage on this snowy night...trying to write.  All that to say, this preamble to my entry only affirms what I'm about to write.

We are flooded.  Flailing, drowning even, in the amount of audio, visual, technological, emotional, and every other kind of -al stimuli you can think of.  We are flooded.  I have been trying to do a lot of creative planning and thinking for work since I've returned from Nicaragua and it has been grueling.  I LOVE doing this kind of work, mind you.  It's just been such a struggle to focus on the task at hand and stick with it.  Going from a place where I didn't have my phone or computer for 2 weeks and the only things I had to read were my Bible and an extra book for fun.  I didn't have a hundred tasks at hand that needed to be juggled, but just a few things each day that had to be done and would be.  My mind was a million miles from anything here.  It was attentive to the time and space that I inhabited and I felt simple.  A good simple.  No worries to muck up my mind.  I wasn't overthinking anything.  We ate 3 times a day, played with kids, rode in a truck, played some games.  As we were making our final descent back into MSP, I lamented to my friend about getting my phone back once we landed and once again being plugged in.  I went on about how nice it was to talk to people in person have that simplicity that Nica had to offer us.  He simply said, "you don't have to leave it there."

He was right.  So I come back struggling for simplicity and realize that I'm the one allowing complexity.  Yes, there are some complexities we have in order to function within our society.  It's the way it works.  However, me feeling invaded by the complexity of culture, technology, and social stimuli is because I've allowed them to do just that.

Proverbs 4 says: "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it."

Maybe I'm taking this too far, but I think we (mostly speaking to me) need to be aware of and proactive about the things we're exposing our hearts to.  When my computer screen has taken the place of my Bible as the first thing that greets me in the morning and the thing that tucks me in at night, my heart isn't guarded.  When I allow and partake in talking about others in a way that's not uplifting, I'm not guarding my heart.  When I allow myself to go on another shopping spree for new clothes because I'm bored or think it'll make me look and feel better, I'm not guarding my heart.  What's the hole in your fence?  Where do you need a shield?  I need lots of them at the moment.

It's funny, I am a notorious wall builder when it comes to most things.  I'm one who likes to keep people at an arms' length.  I have walls that atomic bombs could only dent.  However, something about the world can become so appealing and before I know it, I'm overcome.  It's too late to simply "unplug" or tell the world to back off.  I'm sinking.

That's so like us, right?  Trying hard to hold it together and show the world that we're strong and really, the world sees that we're full of it and drowning.  But Jesus.  He's close at hand.  Scripture calls God our refuge, our fortress (Ps. 46), our light, our salvation, our stronghold (Ps. 27), our rescue, One who is Mighty to Save (Zeph. 3).


When we haven't guarded in our own hearts, when we haven't turned our ears only to what God is saying to us, when we haven't been attuned to where God is guiding us next, when we are perishing in the noise that surrounds us in our earthly wait, HE becomes our guard.

"And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:7

Thank you, Jesus, for doing things we can't do in ways we can't understand.  Forgive us for handing our hearts over to this world.  Fill us with Your truth.  Wrap us in Your promises.  Guard us as we wait on earth.  Guard us as we wait for You.  Amen.