Beatitudes: Blessed are the Pure in Heart
This might have been a very nice way of saying, “Keep it simple stupid.” How could anyone get that out of “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God?” Believe me I did not intend to come up with that concept. I was primed and ready to talk about pure intentions, no ulterior motives and utilize my rarely used devotional side. The old preacher that still lurks inside of me in spite of major efforts to kill him off wanted to talk about hard hearts, selfish hearts, and black hearts full of sin, but I got the old concordance down. The huge blue one that explains every word in the Bible and looked up the words of this beatitude. Was I in for a shock.
In the Bible the heart is seen as the essence of who we are. The spirit or personality of our person. Jesus said. “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he.”
The word pure in this case is closer to clean or uncluttered. The word is more like discern or understand.
A cluttered heart trying to understand God? I had to sleep with that thought for over a week. At first all I could think of is all the “sins” that clutter our lives, but who needs one more list of another person’s pet sins? Then it hit me, this is a picture of our present world. There is so much clutter bombarding our minds and hearts it is a wonder anyone has even a smattering of a sane faith. A sample would include:
CLUTTERED SPIRITUALITY
We are overrun with self-appointed “experts” who seem to have God’s unlisted phone number and know exactly how God works. They seem to know much more about His wrath than they do about His love. They report every natural disaster as God’s punishment for their pet sin. Most of the time they say it is because we do not hate those who are born with a different sexual orientation. So, we end up with a distorted view and understanding of God. Is He love or not?
We have thousands of denominations and groups that proclaim their beliefs as absolute truths so they can feel superior to the rest of the folks. Most of what they proclaim is the result of cherry picking a text or so, taking it out of context, then proclaiming it to be the absolute word of God. We end up like the blind men trying to discover what an elephant looked like. Each one touched a part of the elephant and declared the elephant like a snake, a tree, a wall, a rope. All of them right and wrong at the same time.
SOCIAL CLUTTERING
If an earthquake divided California in two and the western part floated out to sea, the networks would open the news trying to decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing for the President. Politics has swallowed our world. Twenty-four hours a day prognosticating either for or against the current administration, and this has been going on for the last twenty-five years.
This obsession has entwined itself into our religion. We now have conservative Christians and liberal Christians although neither side really thinks the other side are actually Christians. We are polarized by the very faith that is supposed to bring us together. I am a liberal. Some of my very dear friends post things that make me think they think I am not a Christian and that I want to destroy our democracy. I am beginning to feel like my mind and heart are so cluttered that the folks that film the Hoarder’s programs should run one on me.
PERSONAL CLUTTERING
A simple list will suffice.
PREJUDICE
No one can grasp the depth and width of the love of God until we are thrilled that it covers everyone equally.
LONG-TERM HURTS AND GRUDGES
I was thinking through the Lord’s Prayer one morning and suddenly sat up in bed as I got to the part about forgive us our debts and said, “Wait a minute, there is an AS there.” AS we forgive our debtors. Forgive me AS I forgive others?
FEAR, HATE, THE NEED TO BE RIGHT OR FEEL SUPERIOR, THE LIST IS BEYOND THE REACH OF THIS BLOG
We need to do some serious housecleaning. I am far from the poster boy for this process but some time back I decided to simplify my life, my thinking, and my faith. I started limiting the time spent listening to the “news” on Television. I found out I could turn it on for ten minutes every morning and find out what they were going to run into the ground until late that night. That has proven to be enough.
I decided to stop defending any and all of my doctrinal beliefs. They seem to do nothing except divide me from people I loved and are only good for arguments. I do not have a theology and do not want one. I decided to try to just be a simple follower of Jesus Christ, to try to be like Him as much as I can, to try to love others like He did.
Keeping it simple and being a follower is a work in progress that I will never complete, but I see God in a new and more awesome way, I am more and more at peace with my relationship with Him and have a much better understanding of my purpose.
I am working toward “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
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EIGHT ATTITUDES OF SOME SALTY CHRISTIANS
Attitude one: Keep an open mind.
Attitude two: Be open to the comfort of others
Attitude three: Trust the power of love
Attitude four: Know the goal and thirst for it
Attitude five: Dare to show mercy
Attitude six: Keep it simple