Our mind seems to be directly connected to our heart and our emotions. I’ve noticed that to put something in your heart, you only need to think about it seriously – but that once something is embedded there, it is a lot harder to remove! For example, simply to fantasise about having a certain sort of house or garden is a quick way to set your heart on a worldly treasure, and I’m constantly finding things which I’m surprised to find I have a strong attachment to – even though some are really very long shots!
Yet to release something from my heart, if I do what I planned and complete the dream, I find I’ve lost the burden that I hold myself to. Consequently I have these two conclusions:
Guard your heart by preventing yourself from dreaming about or planning to do things that you cannot be sure are right.
When you have decided that something is right, do it as soon as possible! By keeping short accounts, perhaps you can keep a light heart?
This feels right in my spirit, and I’ve been doing my best to do this before God in the past year. There’s a big backlog of things I once set my heart on though – some of which I’m letting go of, and some of which I’m pressing on to complete the best I can. Will I ever be free of the obligations I set myself? Maybe not in this life… But come the glorious day of my resurrection, I know I’ll enjoy the completeness of the freedom I’m beginning to see now!