Reflection – Engage Your Heart

Christianity is not a mental exercise; it is a heart exercise.       Until someone falls in love with Jesus, Jesus remains just an intriguing historical figure.  Not until we are able to engage Jesus with the wonder of a lover can we begin to experience the profound change in ourselves that only love can bring.  

Jesus’ love changed people. Time and again in the scriptures we see it – the blind man alongside the road in Jericho, Jarice whose daughter was brought back to life, the Apostles, Mary Magdalene, St. Paul, the woman at the well, the centurion whose servant was sick, or the centurion present at Jesus’ death, and so many more.  He liberated them and opened them to a new and powerful life. The Greek word the scripture writers used to describe the change is metanoia.  A metanoia is a moment of profound change of mind and heart; an opening of the eyes of the heart, a sudden new way of seeing everything.  

The goal of the Christian life is to so love Jesus, 

that we begin to feel and act like him. 

St. Paul said to the Philippians – “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.”  How do we put on the mind of Christ?  How do we see through his eyes? How do we feel through his heart?  How do we respond to the world with that same wholeness and healing love? 

It is so easy to think Christianity is merely about right belief,

but in truth … it’s about right living.

It is seeking to become like, act like, feel like the one we love – Jesus.