So the Bible begins… appropriately… with these words…

In the beginning…

Water, Icebergs and water vapor in the clouds.. the 3 states of matter. These 3 can also be thought of as conditions of the heart… and where we are on the road of life.

These three words that have the power to provide crystal clear answers to just about anything and everything. If we just knew some of the answers, true mysteries would be resolved forevermore… talk about discovery! However, maybe the elusive bewilderment is actually part of the answer here?

Through Trust… Believe… and Faith… we discovery many answers… and find peace…

As for our heart, in the beginning our heart was immature… and pure.

So what does it matter?

Well, the next thing to transpire after the first spanking… life happens.

Immature… and pure… and then we experience feeling…

And so now we have these other two words… experience feeling… and the residual impact they have on our heart. The enduring impact of childhood, school, sports, past relationships, drama… and trauma, marriage, parenting, family, work, moving, illness, and bereavement, just to name a few.

These experiences are all bundled up in our life story. But they’re only a part of the story, really.  What we do with these memories… how we handle them… and how we live out or lives… that really makes up the story that our life will tell. And that is the overflow of our presence… and our heart.

It’s all relative… and relational. As is our relationship with God. Think about the 3 states of matter in terms of some place along the road of life…

- Solid… rigid… stiff… structured… Here’s an example… if you’re a guy you may live life this way. Men, to generalize, are creatures of boxes… we like to compartmentalized, as psychologists say. For instance, many of us have the fishing box, the football box, the Playstation box, the family box, the work box, and, yes, eeeeks… even God goes into a box. This helps us stay on point, generate solutions, maximize efficiency, productivity and income… and makes us rigid, robotic, and, well… manly. I’m guilty of this just this morning… I boxed my time in blocks to maximize efficiency and productivity though my day.

- Liquid… flows… like the living water of Jesus. Sticking with our example of the boxes here… women are more relational and tend to blend, mix or flow through life. They seem to get life done in a way that many guys simply can’t comprehend (and whenever a dude observes the female way there may even be an eye roll involved).

- Gaseous… flighty? Yea, that would be a good description… and so there is an 3rd option for the state of our heart… maybe think of this one as “neither here nor there.” Right. It just is… not necessarily a good thing, but not the evil wicked bad stuff either.

The 3 states of matter… water transitions between these states depending on temperature and pressure. Our example may be carried to express or describe the condition of our heart. I can imagine mine being solid… liquid… and gaseous at different times, for sure!

I used the boxes as an illustration here, but they’re not always just a guy vs. girl thing. Several years ago I started to evolve out of the boxes and into the warm and fuzzy. Whenever I find myself back in the world of boxes it seems like I end up flustered when things start to overlap… and I find myself having to readjust to a better “One Big Box” balance. For me personally, I find that life is more FRUITFUL when I’m not living in a series of sharp-edged boxes.

I lived some juicy liquid flow just this morning… gladly receptive to leaving the rigid box to converse with the SC 🙂

What lives in our heart, like experiences of the past, and how we handle them, can be either a trap to anger and frustration, or a well light road to take us on an exciting journey. In many ways, it’s all about a choice we make.

Immature… and pure…

These words also take my thought process to how little things can actually turn out to be a pretty big deal.

It’s fascinating to me that our world and everything in it is made up of some really, incredibly small stuff. These little pieces or building blocks of life and the other matter around here are tiny. What knowledge and imagination that God had when he made this place! Impossible to conceptualize, really.

Water is a basic building block of life. We can’t do without it. It covers 71% of the earth’s surface. So yea, it’s everywhere.

This water is static in its chemical makeup. Pure and simple, it consists of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. they’re tied together or bound by a covalent bond. This type of bond involves electron sharing. Wow. So no one is giving it up, as in ionic bonding… covalence is co-operative. That’s you + me = we. Or maybe this is that mashup thing again… just think about it, 2 H’s and an O.

Living water brings life… eternal life. Like that? Still afraid of getting old? It certainly makes me less afraid.

So those little things… the 2 H’s and the O… they created a stable balance of attractive and repulsive forces… the sharing of electrons between atoms… and it all added up to some substance covering the majority of the planet earth… and to living water… that seems like a pretty big deal, right? If it is, why wouldn’t we want to learn… grow… and live a life filled with peace… love… and joy? I know I do, but where do we find it? It’s pretty simple, really… through the wellspring of life!

Q: What are some life changing events that can affect the condition of your heart?