Home Is Where The Heart Is--For Better Or Worse!

So where do you live?

S. Failure Road? Or maybe N. Memory Lane. Do you hang your shingle on First Opportunity Drive, or over on Regrets Blvd? Oh, now I remember--you moved out to the Lonely Winds Subdivision, didn't you? Uh, great. Congrats, I guess.

Home is where the heart is.

In Luke 6:45, Jesus says it this way, "The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks."

We live where we put our hearts. If you allow your heart to wallow in self pity, you'll end up on Woe-is-Me Way. If you focus your heart--your energy, your attention, your
thoughts--on anger, you may very well find yourself living in Madville. You see how this works? Most of these are places you wouldn't chose to visit, and yet there you are, staking your claim. Why?

Pack your bags, and move out!

For goodness sake, if you don't like where you are living, get out of there! Leave Disappointment City and cross the tracks to Second Chance. Get a rental in Hopeville, if nothing else! Stay there 'til something better comes along, but get out of the ghettos! There's nothing there for you. God has something greater in mind.

You can move your heart. Read the passage above from Luke again. What is stored up in the heart is what comes out. Stop stuffing your heart with evil thoughts of anger, self-pity, greed, hopelessness, blah, blah, blah! Pack in some love. Stuff a little grace in there. A healthy dose of gratitude never hurt anyone!

Don't know how?

Start with God's Word, the Bible. Don't know where to start? The Books of Psalms and Proverbs are full of "good things," as Jesus said. Read the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. Try Colossians--it's 4 chapters, maybe 4 or 5 pages long, depending on your Bible. That's shorter than the lease agreement I signed in college for a summer! Don't have a Bible? There's a thousand free ones online. Come up with a better excuse!

Just open His Book and start reading. Put some good in your heart, and see what happens. Read deep enough, and you'll find where Jesus says He already has a room prepared for you. Know where that is?

Paradise Lane.