Soup Du Jour: The Intellect Versus The Heart.

MUMFORD’S MUSINGS
Soup Du Jour: The Intellect Versus The Heart.
Nigel W.D. Mumford+
www.ByHisWoundsMinistry.org
Dateline 8/6/15
This month (Aug 2015) I celebrate twenty five since being called to the healing ministry of Jesus Christ. I seem to be reflecting on certain areas of what I have learnt in the past quarter of a century! After about a year I realized that God was showing me certain dis-ease in chunks of time, I call it the soup du jour. He is still doing this and it is obvious. There is a lot to learn in His healing ministry!
We seem to be in another season of “soup du jour” in ministering to the heart. Several people of very high intellect; professors, theologians, people holding patents, a nun, etc. are coming for ministry. They seem to be realizing that they have “it” in the brain but not in the heart.
One person who was totally overcome by this revelation wept when he “allowed” his heart to speak. It was when I mentioned that his words had changed, that they were actually poetic, identifying the exact moment his heart spoke that tears poured down his cheeks. His heart actually spoke; he suddenly looked like he was ten years old. This intellect had found a new voice. He was so hooked into academia that it seemed that he had forgotten about his heart. What a privilege it is to watch God at work in others.
I have found myself telling the story of Blessed Theresa of Calcutta. (Mother Theresa, 1910-1997). She observed that all the orphaned babies were fed the same food and those that were picked up thrived. However, those who were not picked up, she noticed, either had marasmus (failure to thrive) or actually died through lack of love and human touch. What does that tell us about the human heart?
What am I learning in this season of yet another “soup du Jour”? I’m learning that the journey of healing from the mind to the heart, eighteen inches, is one of the longest journeys some people have. I’m learning that we need to nurture our hearts as Christ even said, “Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.”
Look after your intellect and guard your heart. Allow your heart to love and be loved. Show your heart to others, and speak from the heart. Allow the Lord to ministry to your heart in your broken heartedness and be gentle with yourself. If you have become hard hearted of bitter get some help. It you have built stone or ice walls around your heart find ways to break them down. Start living again.
I have said many times that I am not a theologian or an intellect, I consider myself a heartelogian! (I consider this a new word for scrabble) Set your heart free, be gentle with yourself.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
I Corinthians 13:13
Be well, do good works and for the sake of God, love one another.
Fr. Nigel+