At the beginning of a spiritual retreat, our speaker Matt Heard asked, “How’s your heart?” It stunned me, because I tend to focus on believing with my mind and working with my hands. In the activity of thinking and serving, my heart is pushed to the side. As we were led through the Bible’s repeated emphasis on this crucial center of our lives, I began to grasp his premise that belief and service are, more than anything else, matters of the heart.

When Jesus told a story to illustrate how people receive and respond to His teaching (Matt. 13:1-9), His disciples asked, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” (v.10). In reply, Jesus quoted the prophet Isaiah: “For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them” (v.15; Isa. 6:10).

How dangerously easy it is to neglect our hearts. If we become callous, we find no joy in living or serving; and life seems hollow. But when our hearts are tender toward God, understanding and gratefulness flow through us to others.

So, how’s your heart?