"A Heart Full of Tools"

My dear friend and Sister in Christ, Patty Rhodes once wrote these words for Easter, 2011…

“My heart is Full! My heart is Joyful, My heart is Content! My heart is Hopeful! When bad times arrive (and they always do) I have a heart that is Full of Tools. I am equipped with The Spirit that can take on even the worst of trials! This undeniable feeling Christians have when they walk with the Lord is impossible to disclaim. You can’t help but feel Him. He is alive and well.” --- (Patty Berry Rhodes)

Patty is spending her first Easter in Heaven this year, and I can’t comprehend her joy and what she must be experiencing. Meanwhile, here in this life, we struggle sometimes to muddle through the day to day experience of living with its joys, trials, sorrow, tragedy, peace, and frustration. Life is truly a mixed bag of the wonderful and the awful and everything in between.

As I think about a “heart full of tools,” my mind tends to view the heart in the physical sense and in the spiritual realm. Our physical heart is the vital organ that circulates our blood and feeds all the other organs. The spiritual heart (soul) governs our thoughts, actions, feelings, and the way that we perceive, interpret, and cope with the circumstances of our life. Most importantly, it is our spiritual heart that communicates with God. When I look at the “tools” of this spiritual heart, I realize that there are so many one can possess. Love, faith, hope, joy, compassion, forgiveness, mercy, gratitude, etc. are the first that come to my mind. These are the “tools” that we can use to do great things and serve the Lord and others in positive and meaningful ways. They are also the tools that we use to strengthen our bond with God in the most joyful and sorrowful times in our life.

There are other “tools” of the spiritual heart that are present and can be very deadly if overused or if used at all. Anger, discouragement, sadness, hate, hopelessness, bitterness, resentment, etc. are those “tools” that I think of as having the potential for very negative consequences. As flawed humans, our constructive and destructive “tools” co-exist in us and we have the freedom of choice that God gives to use any of the “tools” in our spiritual heart. We can build up or tear down just about anything with our “tools” – relationships, other individuals, groups of people, ourselves, etc. Sometimes what we manage to tear down or fail to build up can be built or restored at a later point; however, there is no guaranteed success in that approach.

I prefer, instead, to utilize my positive uplifting “tools,” and keep the others secured away so that they don’t get in the way of what I want and need to do to be a light in this world to show others the way to Christ. There is so much wisdom in what Patty wrote one year ago. I challenge you to consider the “tools” of your spiritual heart and use the ones that will do more building and growing for God’s glory.

Blessings and Peace… Winnie