There is an old Jewish story about the young pupil who asks the respected rabbi a question about that well-known passage in Deuteronomy 6:6. “And these words, which I command you this day, shall be upon your heart.”
“Why is it this way?” the pupil asks. “Why are we told to put these words upon our hearts? Why are we not told to place them in our heart?” And the old rabbi answers that it is not within the power of human beings to place divine truth directly into the human heart. “All that we can do,” says the rabbi, “is place them on the surface of the heart so that when the heart breaks they will drop in.”
How true. I think of all the truths that were placed upon my heart by people who loved me and probably wanted to place them directly into my heart—to save me from the suffering they had endured—make sure I got it! But they couldn’t. All they could do was leave them there on the surface of my heart, and then, when it was broken a little later in life, those truths dropped in. It is always a sublime moments of joy in sorrow.
There is a sanctity to the human heart. Not even God invades it. Nor can we. We might wish it were otherwise, that God would just give us the truth directly and spare us the grief of the breaking. And of course we certainly wish we could give truth directly to those we love, especially our children and grandchildren. I have to laugh at myself when I try that with my children. I know it comes from a place of love, but my ego is just as prominent. If I respect the sanctity of the human heart I will simply place that truth upon it, and back reverently away. I have now done what, absolutely, a loving father must do. And no more.
Excellent David. Another strong piece. One thing I’m learning is that the word truth, even with a small t, can itself carry some ego energy. Kay had lunch with a Big Pharma ex-CEO recently and he said that when he gives talks he doesn’t, at the end, do a Q&A but a Q&O. He said, In response to questions I don’t offer answers, but opinions.
Yes, absolutely. Our “truth” is never unalloyed with other gunk!
Congratulations David It is so difficult! I know! Now comes the Grandchildren! Blessings clark
Let’s hope we get better with our grandchildren than we did with our children, eh?
This is so very true – some of these truths finally sink in as we get older. I so remember my fathers advise to me over the years – did not want to hear it, did not believe it – now, the heart has broken a little, and guess what? Yeah,Dad, you told me – now I believe you! Ginny
What a wonderful blog!
Yes, funny how our parents get a little smarter when they’re gone.
Thank you David! Another Favorite!
We want to both prevent their painful experiences & avoid our pain in witnessing their “heart break”. We prefer control over surrender. You captured surrender when you described simply placing truth on someone’s heart and backing reverently away. In His wisdom, God gives us free will. Then He helps us practice surrendering others and ourselves back to Him.