Broken Hearts & Broken Planet

Concepts from John Eldredge's book Epic and Andy McQuitty's sermon "Until Nowhere Becomes Somewhere" have rattled in my head for a couple of days. Here's what's coming out.

Philosophers have said that the greatest enemy of man is man. Maybe it's Satan but if so, man is Satan's most efficient weapon against man. Consider: the death count from all of the earthquakes, mudslides and hurricanes of history don't hold a candle to the millions killed by armies, tyrants, terrorists, despots and assassins. More than we have been battered by the storms and calamities of a broken planet, we have been tortured and killed by men with broken hearts. It makes sense. After all, the human heart is central, valuable and powerful. The heavens and earth testify to the glory of God, but the human heart bears it like an inheritance. We are God's workmanship, the highest expression of his valiant beauty and risky grace. Created in his image. Created to reflect him.

Something endowed with that kind of promise has potential for radical destruction. Made in the image of God, nothing on earth has the power to destroy like broken hearts. As much as the human spirit can inspire and lift us to our better selves, we know from our battered past that it can just as quickly drag us to numb cruelty. It is no small thing to be created in the image of the Almighty. It is glorious weight that we have struggled for centuries to carry well with little success.

And above our struggle to deal with our own dignity, there rages another level of struggle pitched on even higher stakes. Good battles evil. Light invades darkness. Hope, joy, courage and love trade furious blows with hate, cowardice, fear and despair. And the object of that struggle is the image of God. The human heart. Because nothing bears the image of God like the human heart, nothing is hated by Satan as much as we are. Sure, Satan loves to defile all of God's creation, from molecules to mountains, stars to stamen. But he reserves his darkest thoughts, his craftiest schemes for us. Our hearts are the crux, the ring that Frodo carries, the message for Private Ryan, Magua's captives, and Princess Leah's plans.

Nothing in the universe is in greater peril or under more harsh attack by the enemy. And nothing in the universe is more in need of redemption. As much as the Earth groans for renewal, and as much as God intends to restore it, hearts are more important. Nothing is higher on God's priority list for restoration.