Perhaps it may turn out a sang,
Perhaps turn out a sermon.

-- R. Burns Epistle to a Young Friend

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Hard Head, Soft Heart



Behold, I have made your face as hard as their faces, and your forehead as hard as their foreheads.  Like emery harder than flint have I made your forehead.  Fear them not, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house. – Ezekiel 3:8-9     


I know this person – actually, there are several people I know that are like this – this one who thinks I am easily deceived.  Ben was talking the other about giving and when it is appropriate to give money to someone who might misuse it.  This person comes and gives me a story, usually pretty elaborate, fairly desperate.  It always starts out, “I hate to even ask you.”  One of these days I may reply, “Not as much as I hate to hear you say that.” 

The thing is, I know I am being lied to.  One of the things I prayed for when I first became a Christian was the gift of discernment.  I don’t know if I got that, but I certainly have the gifts of suspicion, skepticism, and cynicism.  None of us probably tell the whole truth all the time.  I don’t, but it’s not with the intent to deceive.  It’s more like changing the names to protect the innocent – and sometimes to protect the guilty.  There are details that people really don’t need to know.  It’s good to be laconic. 

Anyway, Ezekiel in general, and these early chapters in particular have always meant a lot me.  Ezekiel and Thomas, and, to a lesser extent Gideon, are the men in the Bible that I identify with most closely.  Not that I was ever called like them, but they did their jobs.  They did what they had to do.  If I had a motto it would probably be something like “Stick to it.”  To do that, you have to be a little hard-headed.  There is a form of stubbornness that is positive, a refusal to quit even when it’s hard and when it hurts and it’s not going your way.    

There is another side to all this, though, for the same God who made Ezekiel’s head harder than flint said, Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you (Psalms 32:9).  Later on, in Ezekiel 11:19-20, the Lord spoke of a change He wanted to make in His people:  And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

There is nothing wrong with being analytical and skeptical in terms of the intellect, but, in the end, the intellect must be informed and guided by the heart.  And the heart must be open and sensitive to the Spirit, to hear God and respond.  This has become something of an expansion of the comment I made on OC yesterday about love and logos.  We can be intellectually rigorous with regard to doctrine so long as it serves love and is motivated by love. 

What my deceptive friend does not understand is that I do not help a person because they can come up with a good story.  Usually the better the story, the less apt I am to buy it.  My head is too hard.  It’s my heart that responds to the plea the Spirit makes between the lies.


7 comments:

Rick said...

My problem is, I find it easy to give when it's easy, and hard to give when it's hard.

I think the Master says it's not really giving if it's easy. (btw, imagine if He hadn't said such things.)

Keep doing the first kind but keep my peepers open for the other.

mushroom said...

Yes, it has to be a little bit of a challenge. It can be a matter of widow's mite -- giving out of our poverty. Or it can be a challenge to our skepticism.

I guess the challenge is always to faith because God promises to reward us (in some way) if we are willing to give.

julie said...

What my deceptive friend does not understand is that I do not help a person because they can come up with a good story. Usually the better the story, the less apt I am to buy it. My head is too hard. It’s my heart that responds to the plea the Spirit makes between the lies.

I've been tested in just such a way recently, someone who is always on the verge of disaster. In times past, I probably would have turned her away. But I've been reading Exodus. It's pretty clear what one ought to do in such times - heck, the situation is practically laid out right there. There was no question of what was right for me to do, no excuse I could honestly give for why I couldn't help.

For me it's always harder to give to the ones close to me. It changes the nature of the relationship. I've seen it damage my parents and their siblings often enough. Then again, it generally does so because they always hope to get back at least a little of what they've given, only to find they might as well have tossed it down a well and expected it to come flying back out. Of course, considering that one family was always in a position to help while the other was always in a position to ask suggests that the money did come back, just not the way we thought...

mushroom said...

Of course, considering that one family was always in a position to help while the other was always in a position to ask suggests that the money did come back, just not the way we thought.

That's a good point.

It does alter the relationship in negative ways sometimes, and you wonder if you let them flail for a while, they might learn to swim. Exodus can get under the skin.

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

Sometimes, I've wanted to help someone only to find out that sometimes it's best not to, after much prayer that is.

I can certainly say there were times in my life, desperate times where it would've been a bad idea for me to get the help I thought I needed.
For if I had gotten the help I wanted, I wouldn't have turned to God, to get the help I really needed.

Each case is unique, of course, yet earnest prayer does help with discernment.
Patti had a natural gift for discernment. A few times I ignored her warnings only to find out the hard way that someone I thought was a friend was only using me.

Thankfully, I learned to listen to her after that, as well as listen to God.
That's not to say i don't still make mistakes, but they are smaller ones now, and fewer and farther in between.

The trick, although it's not really a trick, is to listen to the Holy Spirit in our heart and not to rely on emotions leading the way.

This is kinda funny: one time I helped a guy in the Walmart parking lot becausehe claimed he was out of gas. Even had an empty gas container.
After that I have seen him numerous times in the Walmart parking lot doing the same thing.
And one time, apparently it was quittin' time, I watched him get into his car to leave, and it was much nicer than my mine. Like $50,000 bucks nicer.

My immediate thought was, "why didn't you warn me Lord?"
And He said, "why didn't you listen to me?' :)

Rick said...

This is a good discussion. What the raccoons was built fur.
Ben, I think you got it right the first time with gas can man.
And every time afterward too.
If charity were only good for the receiver, God wouldn't ask us to do it. Discernment must be a form of "seeing" and He gave us that.
There may be enough parables to line up with each opportunity. And not necessarily the ones obviously about charity. The one about "take up your mat and walk" comes to mind, and the "seventy-seven times".
Anyway, got to get to work. I hope this continues. Because wherever a few raccoons are gathered in His name...

mushroom said...

If charity were only good for the receiver, God wouldn't ask us to do it.

Yep, this is the difference between Christian charity and government welfare -- which is good for neither "giver" nor receiver, but it does work out nicely for the government middleman.