The Set Up: In 1924, Dr. Willem Einthoven, received the Nobel Prize for Medicine. Einthoven, who had been born on Java in the Dutch East Indies, and later grew up in the Netherlands, was a medical doctor and professor who studied the human heart. His efforts to understand the human heart led him to create the String Galvonometer. That early prototype eventually became the first electrocardiographic machine. If you’ve ever had an EKG or ECG of your heart done, you can thank Dr. Einthoven. While the technology has vastly improved (Einthoven’s original machine weighed over 600 pounds, took up two rooms, and required five people to operate. Today, you can get a basic ECG from your Apple Watch), the principles he discovered are still used today. The ability to test our hearts is a great gift in detecting and helping to prevent heart disease or damage. It is a life saver.
In the same way the condition of your physical heart impacts your physical heart, your spiritual “heart” is an indicator of who you are as a person. In the Old Testament book of Proverbs, a collection of wise sayings from Solomon and others, we read that our heart is like a mirror, reflecting our spiritual, emotional, and mental health. When that proverb was written, mirrors were scarce. Sometimes a sheet of bronze or other metal was polished until you could see your reflection, but water was the truest and most accurate surface that they could use to see themselves. But in order for us to be able to get a clear reflection from water, it has to be still. When water is still, we can look at it and clearly see ourselves. Lent is an opportunity for us to be still, to take time to let the water of our heart settle down, so we can take a good long look and see who we are. There are so many things in our 24/7 world that keep the water of our heart sloshing around. May you set some of those things aside this Lenten season, allowing God to show you the condition of your soul, and helping you to grow to be more like Christ.
Passage to Read: “As a face is reflected in water, so the heart reflects the real person.” – Proverbs 27:19
Reflection Questions:
· Have you ever looked into a fun house mirror (The kind that distorts your reflection)? What are some of the things in our lives that can distort how we see ourselves?
· When is the last time you were able to get still and take a look at the mirror of your heart? Why don’t we do that more often?
· What do you think is the value of seeing the spiritual condition of your heart?
Prayer Idea: In Psalm 139:23-24, David prays, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.” As you still your heart and pray this, believe that God will answer that prayer.