The Head vs. The Heart
A few weeks ago, my sister suggested I find Good News in, as she put it, 'the mind vs. the heart' with no other explanation. A vague suggestion that could be taken a number of ways, which I like. So here we go:
I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
Paul was onto some thing, I think that's why so many are drawn to him. He understood the struggle of faith and the struggle of living in a manner that his convictions drove him. Passages like the one above from Romans often come to mind as many attempt to rationalize and understand not only their lives but the lives of those around them. Now, what is worse - when our head and our heart align or when they are in conflict? There is a such a tension between our head and our heart. Both no doubt have great influence in our actions and each of us gravitate to one of these in our lives - in our relationships, at our places of work and play.
The Head
The rational side. The part of us that knows right and wrong - that can be more objective. Even though we'd like to believe that this instinct is less bias, we are lying to ourselves. We don't have to look any further than when we have been wronged or hurt, many of us have been skilled with the ability the rationalize the responses we give or what others have done - but then only from the wisdom of a friend or looking back at it ourselves do we recognize the absurdity of our rationalizations. In the end, our head is what often looks out for us. It protects us from receiving more hurt or pain than we can take. That in it's purest is good.
The Heart
The emotion. The heart can lead us to pursue love in both healthy and unhealthy forms. To see the best in the other and it can also lead us to seek after the thrills in life. The heart wants to jump, it wants to hope in the great things and it wants to care. We see individuals with enormous hearts caring for the hardest to love and to believe in a better future even when the other can not see it for themselves. There is a great beauty in living from the heart when it is in it's proper place.
The Good News is in the Tension
The head is reserved and the heart is outgoing - vast over simplifications no doubt - but each lead us to action. Each of us have echoed Paul in saying 'What the hell am I doing?' In those moments we see the competing forces of the head and the heart, in those moments we are able to recognize who we desire to be, how we are not, and simply throw our hands up in the air in wonder of why we have gotten where we are.
There is good news in that. There is good news in that tension.
Our head and heart have qualities we need and we must be attune to. For it can push us to jump when we become too stationary or pause when we've taken things too far. The tension allows us reflect, even for an instant, how we might respond and step into the next moment. That pause asks us 'Will we continue on a path we should not be on or will we do the hard work of becoming the people we were made to be?'
Recognizing this, asking that question of ourselves and holding onto the daily tension of where are head and heart want to lead is good. The Good News is that we are stuck solely in one or the other and that the tension can call us to balance.