Etch Others On Your Heart

[manictaz]

We are most like the Holy One when we really care about each other.
In a consumerist, materialistic culture, it’s teasingly seductive to be more concerned
about oneself than about others.
But we do so at our own peril.
At the center of our being lies our heart—that place that was created for caring.

When we are overly fascinated with ourselves, our heart is diminished,
our compassion is stunted, our interaction with the whole of human existence is lessened.
When we cast our glance away from self and etch the lives of others on our heart, our heart expands.
We come to understand ourselves better. We find that our thoughts, feelings, hopes,
and dreams deepen until they are as textured and rich as the thick wool of an oriental carpet.

Aaron was given the continual task of bearing the concerns of the people on his heart before the Lord.
We might say in modern parlance that he was being asked to pray for them.
Prayer for others, however, is too easily seen as an episodic event, engaged in only at times,
such as worship services, when we feel it’s expected.

But consider what it might mean in your life if you began to etch others on your heart.
Instead of praying episodically, you would keep your heart always open to heaven,
silently asking God to read the carvings you had scratched there.

O God, when I am pre-occupied with myself,
wake me up and give me the heart of heaven.