The Importance of Guarding Our Heart

Almost every day we hear something about heart disease, whether on a news report, a TV commercial, or a post on the Internet. And to an extent, that’s justified. We cringe at the sound of “cancer,” but heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women of most ethnicities in the United States. The overriding message is we need to learn how to guard our hearts from a variety of dangers.

I know this firsthand, since both of my parents died of heart disease, and I’m a survivor. More than eight years ago I underwent open-heart surgery, and since then – for the most part – I’ve been diligent to take care of my heart. This has included regular, rigorous exercise; trying to eat properly (again, for the most part!), and taking medications as prescribed. But what concerns me even more is a different form of “heart disease” we tend to overlook.

The determination to "guard your
heart" must be intentional.

Proverbs 4:23 admonishes, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” In this instance, the passage is not referring to an organ, the cardiac muscle that keeps blood pulsing through our veins and arteries. It’s addressing our minds – the origin of our desires and motives.

The word wellspring is not a term we hear every day. One definition is “a continuous, seemingly inexhaustible source or supply of something.” So in this instance, when the Proverbs passage talks about the heart, it’s about protecting the source of what we think, how we feel, the attitudes we hold, and ultimately, who we are and how we act.

How do we go about guarding this “wellspring”? Well, it depends. Sometimes a change in environment is in order. As my friend, Jim Lange, noted recently in his own blog, environmental factors can affect our hearts positively or negatively. In some instances a change of place is needed – going to a different location to clear your head, to get your “heart” right again. This is why vacations can provide wonderful, restorative therapy.

But sometimes changing the physical environment isn’t an option. It’s our “natural habitat,” where we live and work, the people with whom we interact, along with the information available to us on a daily basis. For this reason it’s important to sort out what we allow to fill our minds, just as a programmer would monitor and control software being used in a computer.

As Jim noted, sometimes it’s toxic people – those that are perpetually negative, whose conversations are anything but uplifting and edifying. If we want to remain in a healthy, positive state of mind, more than a small dose of such individuals can be very detrimental.

Years ago I was an avid reader of horror novels, books in which elements of the occult were described in detail. After my pastor gave a sermon on what the Bible teaches about occult practices, I asked him whether my enjoyment of fiction on that topic was out of line. He gave an excellent response: “You’ve got to decide that. But consider this – when you read those books, are they pointing you toward God, or away from Him?”

Guarding our hearts doesn’t just mean avoiding negative “programming” for our minds. In today’s workplace, where men and women often work together intensely on demanding projects, married people must be cognizant of the threat of romantic entanglements and take preventive measures. Extramarital affairs, according to the experts, most commonly result not from spontaneous “one-night stands” but from relationships that slowly drift from working relationships into friendships and then emotional attachments, long before physical intimacy occurs.

So guarding our hearts in the workplace requires setting up appropriate boundaries well in advance of possible temptations. As King Solomon write, “Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom” (Song of Solomon 2:15). Minor, seemingly harmless words, gestures and actions can lead to major consequences.

Just as proper exercise, nutrition and medication work in positive ways to ensure heart health, we also can take steps to promote the well-being of our mental and emotional “heart.” As King David wrote, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word…. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:9-11).

The apostle Paul added, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things” (Philippians 4:8).

In approaching the challenge of “guarding our hearts,” being proactive is far better than being reactive, once the harm has already been done. 

Getting to the Heart of the Matter

Things just aren’t made to last. How many people do you know that keep their cars 10 years or longer? Maybe a few, but not many. Some people purchase a new automobile every year or two, others hang onto them for several years. But we know that cars have a limited lifespan. Trade it in before it breaks!

The same applies to clothing, appliances, eyeglasses, even paint. Most smartphones have an expected life of two years. By the time our mobile provider contract is up, there’s a totally new version available that makes our old cell phone seem like it has a rotary dial. And computers? We might try to squeeze every day out of them that we can, but with the advances in technology, your computer is obsolete almost before you can get it home and plug it in.

We purchase things fully knowing that almost before we realize it, it’s time to replace them. “Planned obsolescence” is one term for it. Products are manufactured with enough durability that they don’t break or deteriorate within the first few months or years, but sooner or later they become old and worn, in need of replacement. Or the new version is so advanced we feel foolish clinging to the old one.

This model of the human heart, on Discovery Fit &
Health's website, shows an amazingly durable organ.

So I always marvel about the endurance and longevity of the human heart. We occasionally hear of people having heart transplants, but for most of us the heart we’re born with is the one we’ll take to the grave. That’s why coronary health is of increasing importance. People are living longer and if they don’t take precautions, heart disease looms in their future. If you have a heart attack you can’t simply go to a used heart store and get a new one.

A normal heart at rest can beat from 60 to 100 times per minute. The average person, according to the Mayo Clinic, has a resting heart rate of 72 beats per minute. That translates to 4,320 beats in one hour; 103,680 beats in a 24-hour day; 38 million beats in a single year. And that doesn’t include faster heart rates during times of exertion and stress. Applying those statistics to a 70-year human life span – and many people are living much longer than that – a single heart will beat non-stop more than 2.7 billion times. That is a lot of lub-dub, lub-dub, lub-dub!

In a day or so I’ll mark seven years since undergoing open-heart surgery. It involved four arterial bypasses and, for good measure, an entirely rebuilt ascending aorta. (The old one was on the verge of popping, which isn’t a good thing.) So when Christmas rolls around, I regard the past year as another gift. Other than the half-hour or so when my heart was stopped during surgery, with a heart-lung machine filling the gap, my heart has been beating and pumping without fail.

Over the succeeding years I’ve engaged in a consistent cardio exercise program (my resting heart rate is 60), I’ve tried to eat better (there’s still room for improvement), and I’ve taken my medications as prescribed. This marvelous blood-pumping machine God gave me more than six decades ago has served me well.

Most physicians and scientists would tell you the heart is nothing more than tissue and muscle, designed extremely well for performing a very specific task. The Bible, however, views the heart differently. It describes the heart as the seat of emotion – and motivation.

For instance, one translation of Proverbs 4:23 states, “Keep your heart with all vigilance (guard your heart), for from it flow the springs of life.” As the prophet Samuel searched for a new king for the people of Israel, God told him, “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). And Jeremiah 17:9 declares, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”

Obviously these passages aren’t referring to physical properties and functions of the human heart, but do suggest there may be a spiritual dimension to the marvelous muscle. For years following my surgery, I volunteered at the hospital, visiting patients who also had undergone open-heart procedures. It was not unusual for even strong, tough-looking men to have eyes fill with tears as they reflected on what they had just experienced – the fact they had ventured to death’s door and then stepped away.

So as I take time to reflect again on the blessing I have in a refurbished physical heart, I’m also reminded of Jesus’ admonition about the spiritual heart: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Perhaps He had in mind the warning from Proverbs 21:2, “All a man’s ways seem right to him; but the Lord weighs the heart.”

Where is your heart today?