Change, Part 2: Wisdom Comes Through the Heart

Wisdom comes in the ears, through the heart, and out the fingertips. This week, we explore the second step in the chain.

Let them not escape from your sight;
Keep them within your heart.
For they are life to those who find them,
And healing to all their flesh.
Keep your heart with all vigilance,
For from it flow the springs of life (Prov. 4:21-23).

Bill Ward (2009), Creative Commons

We find the second part of the formula in verses 21-23. When we plug in to God’s wisdom, and it enters our lives through the ears, we need to connect it to the motherboard. If we bypass the processor and run everything right off RAM, it has no longevity. The moment we power the computer down, we lose our data. We must keep the words within our hearts (Prov. 4:21) and keep our hearts with all vigilance (Prov. 4:23).

For the non-technical folk out there, what I just wrote means that when we hear wisdom, it won’t produce change in us until it affects who we are. “The heart” is one of the chief biblical images for our inner selves: thoughts, beliefs, emotions, character, desires, dreams, fears, and conscience.[1] “Heart” in the Old Testament might be what you got if you combined all the following modern-day terms: mind, will, heart, and conscience.

The Bible says that the heart is the command center from which we manage our lives. When we keep the wise words of life in our hearts (Prov. 4:21), they get passed on to the rest of the flesh (Prov. 4:22) because from the heart flow the springs of life (Prov. 4:23).

Any attempt to change that does not pass through the heart is therefore shallow and temporary. I can learn skills by rote, but I haven’t really changed if they haven’t changed who I am.

For example, if I study for a test, pass it, and quickly forget the material, I haven’t really learned it (it hasn’t hit my heart). If a child wrongs another child, is forced by an adult to apologize and does so sarcastically, we wouldn’t label it remorse. When a man tells his wife he loves her, but covertly keeps a mistress, we have reason to question whether his love is true. If a needy person requests charity from a church, the leaders are right to help relieve the immediate burden while also exploring whether the person could make different choices to avoid having the same need again.

The main point is that wisdom gets us unstuck and changes us by changing who we are.