March 8
The Head and the Heart (Part 1)
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. ––Philippians 4:6-7
Knowing is different from knowledge.
I know a lot about snowboarding. Imagine yourself asking me, “Do you think I should try snowboarding?” I could say, “I think snowboarding is great” and then proceed to explain the origins of snowboarding. The history. The physics. The technique. The modern snowboard versus its predecessors. The places where you can snowboard. The dangers of snowboarding. The difference between fresh powder and groomed snow. The proper ways of getting on and off a chairlift. The difference between “goofy” and “regular” stances on a snowboard. Stopping. Carving. S-turning. “Clicking” out of your bindings. And on and on, ad nauseam.
That would be a rough conversation for you.
Why? Because my knowledge is limited to facts, education, reason, objects, and memory. It’s about the head. It’s about being able to explain things objectively. Why make this distinction? Knowledge based on information alone provides partial familiarity; there is an emotional distance and incompleteness when you only know facts and details about something. In fact, I would sincerely hope that you would respectfully pause our hypothetical convo after a few minutes and ask me, “So, Kenny, have you ever actually physically snowboarded yourself?”
Knowing based on experience is a qualitative way to measure anything and is way better. More specifically, I would be able to tell you how awesome and wonderful snowboarding actually is (because I do snowboard) versus just describing it.
There’s a big gap between “I snowboard” and “I know a lot about snowboarding.”
It’s a shame that when it comes to the awesome nature and power of God’s love, so many Christian men (and women, for that matter) speak from their heads and not from their experience or their hearts. There’s a big gap between “I actually know Jesus and His love” from experience, and “I know a lot about Jesus and His love” in my brain. It’s a problem and it’s tragic, especially when you understand just how much there is to experience, sense, feel, and be strengthened by when the reality and power of God’s love travel from your head to your heart on a regular basis.
This journey south, whereby God’s love takes the elevator in your spirit to where it can heal you and set you free emotionally and psychologically is an event the Evil One fears. Why? Because both control and freedom are at stake. The devil also knows the head and the heart disconnect makes your relationship with God one-dimensional, distant, and incomplete, and he wants to keep it that way.
That is why the spiritual journey from knowledge to knowing must happen. To be secure, you must have an anchor, and that anchor isn’t knowledge about how God fully loves, accepts, and defines you; it’s about actually knowing—experiencing and comprehending at a heart level—the multidimensional nature of God’s love inside you. What’s at stake? Freedom from other influences that control your life. And there is also another reason.
The head and heart connection is the birthright of every child of God. Don’t sell your birthright for a little knowledge; press into God and know Him.
Father, take my knowledge and turn it into knowing as Your love and presence travels from my head to my heart