Heart and Soul







There is a fun piano duet piece that just about every beginning piano student learns. It’s called “Heart and Soul.” Most of these budding pianists have no idea that this composition actually has lyrics.

 Heart and Soul, I fell in love with you
Heart and Soul, the way a fool would do
Madly.


I often take the words of love songs, and think about how they describe the love God has for me. And how I should be loving him.

My heart and soul live in harmony when they rest in his powerful love. But sometimes, my heart and soul are not united. I should belong to God completely, but I'll find that I’m torn in two. That’s when the misery starts.

When I'm sad, my heart cries out in pain. My soul, belonging wholly to God, tries to balance this reaction with encouraging perfect trust. I struggle between the two sides. I try to hold on to faith through the hard times, but it’s not easy living with these opposing feelings.

Turns out I've got company. There were two other guys who suffered with the heart and soul split.

My soul thirsts for God, the living God.   Psalm 42:2

King David knew his soul pined for unity with the Lord. He describes that desire as thirst, a beautiful comparison, easy to understand. So what’s getting in the way of his drinking with gusto at the feet of the Lord? You guessed it. His heart.

King David fell in love with someone else’s wife. We all know the story. In the end, he had his lover’s husband killed. Yikes.  A King, who declared his unending thirst for God, buckled under the fracturing desires of his heart.

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate, I do
Romans 7:15

We never find out what St Paul struggled with; we don’t what split him in two. But it’s probably better that way. We can all fill in that unknown with whatever we ‘hate’, but still do. Maybe it’s laziness or anger…it could be any number of things. They are the bugle call that starts the war with our souls.

Heart and Soul. King David, St. Paul and me. At times, we all suffer the painful separation; the pulling in opposite directions.

But I can take comfort in the repeating cycles of reconciliation in the lives of these great men. God never gave up on them. He constantly called them back, wanting David and St. Paul to continue working in the field. The Father never tired of renewing his grace. 


The favors of Yahweh are not all past, his kindnesses are not exhausted; every morning they are renewed... 
Lamentations 3:22-23


I know I can count on this daily rebirth of God's grace too. He will show me how I can stop the war inside. Then, I can fall in love with him, heart and soul. Just like a fool would do. Madly.

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