(Don't) Follow Your Heart

The phrase “follow your heart” is a strange one, as is “do what you feel is right”, or “follow your dreams”. The essence of all three of these sayings, and many others, is selfishness. Put more bluntly, each of them says, “Do what YOU want to do, don’t worry about anybody else”.

These ideas, or at least the vocalising of them, seem to have originated, as do many English phrases, in Shakespeare. “To thine own self be true” says Polonius to his son Laertes in Hamlet, as he is about to leave home. play Polonius is a talkative old man who loves clichéd false wisdom; this line was supposed to be laughed at or recognised as a cliché. Shakespeare is not giving life advice here, and yet that seems, at least to me, to be how it has developed. The sentiment is repeated over and over again in films and music, “follow your heart”, don’t worry about the ‘haters’, (those who don’t agree with you), as long as you are happy in the end.

It’s little wonder that this phrase has become so popular. It gives justification to whatever you need it to, in order to follow your dreams. However, what happens then when two people’s dreams come into conflict? When we drill down to individual narratives, individuals getting what they want, individuals achieving their dreams, rather than the narrative of the common good, it becomes impossible for everybody to be happy.

As I have said, one problem with this phrase “follow your heart” is that it focuses only on self. Another problem however is that it naturally assumes that all people’s dreams are good, that people themselves are good. This despite the opposite being proven again and again - they simply aren’t. You only have to read the news to know that humanity has big problems: wars because leaders dream of better things for their country or simply for themselves; corruption, because people dream of what they could do with more money or influence; crime, because people follow their desires, follow what they want, their dreams rather than thinking about anyone else.

However, all of these things are incredibly predictable if we read the Bible. Because, while human beings like to present themselves as being basically good, God, their creator, has another view. We read:

This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them …

Jeremiah 13:10

We may think that things are different in the New Testament, that somehow God has changed his view. Well, not according to Jesus:

“But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.”

Matthew 15:18-19

Having seen then that the Bible clearly teaches that it isn’t a good idea to follow our hearts, what should we follow in life? What is the Bible’s advice? Well in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus, God’s son, says:

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me”.

Matthew 16:24

So, Christ says to follow him, not our own hearts and desires, but how do we do that? In John 13 we read that at the last supper with his disciples before he was crucified, Jesus washed his disciple’s feet. Verses 13-15 give his explanation for this:

“You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.”

John 13:13-15

So, Jesus, even though he was entitled to be called Teacher and Lord, takes on the role of servant. He sees to the needs of others; he doesn’t expect them to serve him. How much better would the world be if everyone had this attitude, to make sure others are cared for before themselves. We are told more about the mind of Christ in Philippians:

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Philippians 2:5-8

These verses take us all the way back to the very beginning of the Bible to creation and the fall of human beings.

Genesis (Adma & Eve)	Philippians (Jesus Christ)
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:27	“…though he was in the form of God…” Philippians 2:6
“For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:5	“did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped” Philippians 2:6

Both Adam and Christ are described in various places as sons of God. Both men are given authority, Adam over the Garden of Eden and all the animals. Christ, as God’s son and born of the Jewish royal line was also entitled to authority. Yet when the time came, while Adam and Eve over-reached their authority looking for equality with God, the Lord Jesus Christ emptied himself of all ambition and entitlement; his concern was for others not self. This, of course, should have been Adam’s concern too; he and Eve were put in the garden to care for it and to look after it. But selfish ambition was his downfall and is so often the downfall of humanity in general.

I hope we have been able to see in this short article that following our hearts and our dreams can so often lead us astray and lead to hurt for others. I just want to finish with another quote from the Lord Jesus Christ. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the whole world followed these instructions rather than their hearts?

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

John 15:12-13