“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”
~Marcel Proust.
There’s possibly no worse a blight-filled plight for any human being than being closed minded and stony hearted because the eyes and ears have long since closed over, or were never allowed to open in the first place.
But this truth occasions itself to all of us, especially even those of us who pride ourselves on having our eyes and ears continually open to whatever ‘God might be saying’. There’s a certain spiritualised pride involved in having open eyes and ears—if that’s taken beyond the sublime.
Humility is Balance
The best eyes and ears to possess are those that are renewed, certainly from experience, but that are also open to the things never before experienced, but which are right around the corner and in front of us.
Life should not be able to readily surprise us in fear to the point that our faith is being overhauled or demolished—unless it is destined that we grow from it, which is often the case as seen from retrospect. Indeed, the construct of our faith—based ever so solidly on established truth and grace—should not only withstand the new knowledge but be able to house it and grow from it.
The greatest of faiths, then, tend to be obedient to God’s call for the humility of balance to be the overlaying screed governing the experience and expression of faith—grounded always sufficiently enough that truth is able to be prized above all else.
Truth seen and heard is what personalises faith as being appropriately humble to the core.
Blessed are the Open-Hearted, for They Will Have Eyes and Ears Open to God
Below the outer reaches of sight and sound is the heart beneath it all. This is both our emotional nerve centre and the basis of an inordinate amount of decisions—or judgments—we make.
We cannot be truly open-eyed or open-eared without being open-hearted. It is the heart that motions to the mind to open up or close down in the matter of our experience.
The heart, then, is the life-source, for out of it comes the surges or goings of life (Proverbs 4:23).
The Open-Hearted Have the Fuller Realm of Joy in Discovery
The faintly or reticent ‘open’ heart betrays the joy of discovery every time. Put oppositely, those free of heart to explore without the slightest encumbrance will enjoy the real thrill of discovery. This is fantastically available almost every moment.
We cannot rob God in this way. God’s always having the last say. There’s no blessing of joy where the heart is incongruent or ambivalent.
God blesses the pure motives of the person seeking to grow in sincerity of heart. This, however, can only be done without the remotest selfish thought. In this exercise we’re God’s property entirely... to the extent of the childlike faith.
Open heart? ... It really is up to us to make our move with God bringing nothing of ourselves to heaven’s table.
© 2010 S. J. Wickham.
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