Heart Or Mind

(Reproduced from an earlier blog entry written on February 27, 2006)

We know we should love our Lord with all our heart, all our mind, and all the rest -- but given a choice, do you think God would prefer to be loved with a heart or with a mind?

You might remember that Jesus loved children. And I suppose he loved them because they are ruled by their heart, with no calculating pretense but simply a pure authenticity that reaches directly into another person's soul. They do what they have a genuine feeling for, not what they think they ought to.

As adults, we often do things our mind tells us to do, and oftentimes it's good, assuming we have a decent level of common sense. But in interpersonal relationship, people don't always like things done out of the mind, because things done out of the mind are meant to please, whereas things done out of the heart are evident of love. Of course when someone thinks about doing something to please you, there's already enough reason to be happy -- after all, how many people would bother to make that effort? And why should anyone bother to make that effort at all? But if people like that are so hard to come by, how much more so are people who genuinely DESIRE to do things not so much to please you, as to value you as someone who have literally become an integral part of their existence as inseparable as their very own heart?

In a world of rampant individualism and self-centeredness, doing things with our heart is gradually becoming a rarity. What could be even more chilling though, perhaps, is to expect to be treated with heart when others seem hardly bothered to even think much about you with their mind. But that's exactly what the distinction between the mind and the heart is all about: the former can be manipulated, the latter cannot. You might be able to change what you THINK about a person, but you can hardly change how you FEEL about him. Love cannot be enforced. Even God Himself doesn't force us to love Him, because He knows more than anyone else that love that comes out of coercion is not love at all. To make ourselves more capable of love, therefore, the best way to go really is to pray to God and ask Him to transform our heart into a receptacle that overflows with His love ...

Although a balance between the mind and the heart is important, we must constantly remind ourselves of the risk of turning "heartless." It's most unfortunate that the word "thoughtful" -- a very beautiful word in itself -- emphasizes only the "thinking" aspect of an action and not its "affect." But next time when someone does something thoughtful to you, remember it's just as likely to have come out of his heart as of his mind. And you can be sure that either way, you have good reason to congratulate yourself.