5/16/54

Scripture: Proverbs 4:10 - 5: 2.

Text: Proverbs 4: 23; “Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.”

Out of the heart are the issues of life. So goes the Scriptural observation in the fourth chapter of Proverbs. If that be true, (and such Scriptural observations are true, having stood the tests of time and experience) then it is a good idea to take care of the heart. One may take this instruction in quite a literal, physical sense. The formation, promotion, and support of the American Heart Association calls the attention of the general public, as well as that of physicians, to the necessity of care for that vital organ of bodily existence, the heart. Documentary films reveal the characteristic strength and delicacy of its functions. Proper care, medical examination, periodic check-up, and sensible hygiene are underlined. Causes of disease and malfunction are pointed out.

A certain sensible amount of concern for the proper care of the heart is probably indicated for most of us. In this literal sense, it is not amiss to repeat the Biblical warning: “Guard thy heart, for out of it are the issues of life” --- especially if one remembers that much of the good life is directly related to the good heart. Some kind of heart trouble, of serious nature, comes to far too many people. Many other plagues of the flesh have been brought under control. Soil improvement has brought improvement of foods. Purifying of water, milk, and foods has reduced infections. Communicable diseases such as small pox, diphtheria, typhoid fever and the like are nearly eliminated among those who take the care to be immunized.

The attack, through study and treatment, upon diseases of the heart may one day yield impressive improvement in their incidence. Probably much of the desired improvement in heart condition awaits improvement of the soul. For heart disease appears to have increased with modern speed and pressure, and the stepping up of personal and group competition. At some points the span of life expectation is considerably lengthened; at others no such gain is apparent. Too many are breaking health too soon -- and from causes that are not alone physical, but mental and spiritual as well. The message: “keep well thy heart” may be taken as a reminder to do those things needed to guard physical health; good physical examinations; diets that are followed rather than “adored;” rest that is regular and sufficient; relaxation that properly alternates with work tension. “Guard thy heart” also by better attitudes toward life, toward people, toward one’s enemies, toward the daily problems which one faces.

The New Testament says little about the physical health of Jesus. Presumably it was good. He could hardly have done what he did had he been limited in health, for his life was strenuous. But a most striking characteristic of Jesus, as seen in the New Testament, is his amazingly good spiritual health. Roy Smith remarks of Jesus in this respect:

Life never seemed to irritate him;

People did not bore him;

Delays did not anger him;

Controversy did not upset him;

Opposition did not unman him.

He harbored no jealousies, hatreds or envies to spoil his joys. He lived with constant trust. This serenity of spirit which Jesus had, and makes available to us, must come together with medicine to establish health of the heart. At a time when physiology stresses the importance of psychology, it is no time for religion to deny the place of medicine. A vital Christian faith, and the skill of the physician, must go together to save one from the unwise and unnecessary stresses that can age attitudes and tissues alike all too fast.

And to seek spiritual health, as Jesus knew it, may be far more important than the constant pursuit of physical health. Paralleling our clinical checkup must go the constant seeking of the Master’s influence in daily living.

A fellow found himself getting really upset over the problem of driving in the slow, heavy downtown traffic of his city about 5:30 each afternoon. He decided on an experiment. He estimated the time it would take him to drive from his downtown office to his home under the best of driving conditions. He then checked this estimated time against the actual time that it did take him to drive it when traffic was at its worst. He discovered that the difference was only six minutes; and decided that that was nothing over which to lose his health. From that day on, he relaxed on his way home, listened to his auto radio when traffic had to stop, and took some of those moments to enjoy the life about him.

When a fellow finds that, due to some our community’s excellently improved roads, he can travel about 20 miles in 15 minutes to keep an appointment, it seems to me he would be well advised to rediscover the satisfaction of starting 5 or 10 minutes sooner, so as to relax and enjoy the ride before reaching his destination.

One man thought it a good idea to pray for peace every time he found himself waiting at a traffic light. How much peace that may help to bring into the world I do not know. But that is one of the vast needs of our earth today, and is tremendously worth the thought and time of many people.

[One of the resolutions introduced and passed at our State Conference last Thursday was one reminding our Christian folk to pray for all of those leaders of the nations now meeting in Geneva to try to negotiate the means of international peace.] [editor’s note; bracketed paragraph deleted for later sermons].

And regardless of the peace which might ensue from the concerted prayers of drivers stopping at red traffic lights, the peace of soul which could accrue to each driver himself could be considerable!

If a better attitude toward living is one sound way to guard the heart, a further step in the same direction is that of controlling and directing one’s emotional life. I have read of a fiery newspaper editor of a generation ago who realized that he had lost far too many good reporters by “blowing his top” every time something or someone irritated him. He realized that he got nowhere, except into trouble, by having constantly to break in new members on his staff because of his quick temper that had summarily fired several people of ability. He got so he would stuff his handkerchief into his mouth every time he got good and mad, and leave it there until he was sufficiently controlled to keep his talk civil again. And that whole office learned to let him alone for a few minutes whenever he strode through the room with a bit of white handkerchief showing at the corner of his mouth!

Most folk can devise better means than that of controlling the resentments that pile up against one’s competitor, some contemporary who is annoying, or some situation that raises our blood pressure every time we encounter it. The anger at missing a bus may be as harmful to the heart as the race to catch it. Resentment at being frustrated over one’s hopes can be quite as damaging as the effort to achieve them. Anger aroused by missing a putt at golf; hidden jealousies; irritation at members of one’s family are poisonous enough to be worth avoiding. A doctor who is much interested in psychoanalysis has said this: “If you get angry at the boss, and tell him so, you will probably lose your job; but if you stay angry at him for years, without boiling over at him, you are probably damaging your arteries and building up a dangerously high blood pressure. Hostility suppressed for years, like a boiling volcano which never erupts, is the fundamental cause of malignant high blood pressure for which no physical cause has ever been found.”

Christianity has in it many tests which are valid in their place. These are tests as to Bible knowledge, as to churchmanship, as to statement of faith, as to stewardship. Another test, which is highly valid, is our ability to control some of our emotional life.

One of the most striking notes of Jesus’ life was his emotional control and poise. Crowded with pressures, he did not hurry. Attacked by dangerous enemies and irritating critics, he never worried. dealing with people with closed minds, he remained patient. Calmness, a kind of alert serenity in crisis, describes his mood and his example for us.

It pays in general health to exercise emotional discipline. A laugh is a better release than a temper spasm. One of the cheeriest souls I ever knew, mother of five children, died following unsuccessful surgery. An acquaintance paid remarkable tribute to her in a statement that went something like this: “Alice has been a warm and enthusiastic friend of all who turned her way. For those who turned away from her, she had no comment.” If she ever sensed that she was not important to, or needed by, someone, she seemed never to give it another thought. And there wasn’t a bitter fiber in her being.

Another woman went to her doctor with severe pain which seemed to originate in the small of her back, passing between her shoulder blades into her neck. The doctor examined her with great care, discovered nothing physically wrong with her, concluded that though the pain was real to her, it was caused by her emotional state. He said to her: “Now tell me the real basis of your difficulty.” Slowly she replied, “Well, I think, if just once I could tell my husband off, I would be all right.” Well, she might get relief out of “telling off” her spouse, or perhaps even by having a brisk fight with him. But a better way is the transforming of one’s feelings of antagonism, resentment, jealousy, or fear toward another by seeing in another and in life some good, something to appreciate, something to be grateful for. In this way one often forgets oneself and gains the essential emotional control.

A young fellow was playing tennis -- and playing it rather badly, it happened. Speaking of his bad game that day in vocabulary and terms that turned the atmosphere blue, he suddenly realized that his pastor was passing the court. Immediately he apologized, not for his poor playing, but for his emotional binge. If there was anything about the presence of his minister to bring him under self control, how much better it had been for him to realize that we all live all of our lives in the presence of God. And in that Presence there is the quietness and strength which we need to guard the heart.

A further way to “keep the heart” is to regard life not so much as a problem as a privilege. No need to pile up tension and resentments because there is so much to do, and so little time to do it; tremendous needs and limited resources; vast problems and few solutions; high costs and limited means. Acknowledge these situations we must, but to brood on them is useless and harmful. Bob Hope reported in this fashion on his record for one day: “Today my heart beat 103,369 times, my blood traveled 168 million miles, I breathed 23,040 times, I inhaled 438 cubic feet of air. I ate three and one-quarter pounds of food and drank two and nine-tenths pounds of liquid. I perspired one and 43/100 pints. I gave off 8510 degrees of heat; I generated 450 tons of energy; I spoke 4,800 words, moved 750 major muscles; my nails grew 46/100,000 of an inch and my hair grew 1714/100,000 of an inch; and I exercised 7 million brain cells. My, I’m tired!”

Well, that’s one way to keep alive -- for a while! Keep always before one’s self life’s complicated, strenuous program! Be conscious of every barrier, fuss over every detail, make an issue over every problem. Put yourself at the center of everything -- and see if you can avoid “heart trouble.”

There is another way to live. One man wrote of it in his diary, saying: “We have passed through a depression, a world war, inflation, and five national elections in the last 16 years; yet I am still rich, I am still grateful, I am still happy. All my capacities for the enjoyment of life are still intact. My two-million-dollar eyes are just as good as ever; every sunset and landscape is mine if I want it; my million-dollar sense of hearing is unimpaired, and there are my million-dollar stomach and half-a-million dollar appetite; no doctor has sentenced me to spinach for the rest of my life; no election has lowered the value of a single friendship; neighbors greet us as usual; business associates still believe in us; our son still holds us in high respect; our daughters still lavish their affection upon us; my wife’s welcome at the close of the day is not depreciated in the least; our faith in the goodness of the universe is still unimpaired; the prayers my mother taught me and the faith in God instilled in me by my father remain as priceless treasures which no depression, war, inflation, or election excitement can touch.” It would seem that that man had sound spiritual health while he is able to return from the demands of each day’s routine to the reality of God’s greatness and the ultimate good in life.

“Keep thy heart with all diligence.”

One man sought release from the drives of his office and profession by disappearing for about an hour each day. His secretary, his wife, a few friends noticed it but could not fathom it. He just wasn’t around for that hour each afternoon. Finally he was shadowed; and they found he went to a wooded section and sat down quietly for the better part of an hour. Then after a train passed, he would return and cheerfully take up his work. When confronted with his behavior and asked if there was any connection between all of this and the passing of that train, he exclaimed, “That’s just it! I simply had to go where I could see something that runs which I don’t have to push!”

That is not at all queer! If there are too many things that we have to push, we can rest assured that there is One who was here before we were, and will be here after we are gone. He needs not our little efforts to make His seasons come and go. We have no responsibility for painting His sunrises, nor for getting the sun up in the morning. And if we give Him sway in our lives, acknowledging our dependence upon Him, we shall find our peace and renewal. For He sends us forth. And in returning to Him is our rest.

“Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.”

(end)

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Dates and places delivered:

Wisconsin Rapids, May 16, 1954.

Wisconsin Rapids, July 11, 1965.

Wood County Infirmary, July 14, 1965