From Head to Heart

By Lindsay Wentz

It is only a short two feet or less from the human brain to the heart, but there are times in life when that distance feels insurmountable. We might understand theologically that God is good and sovereign, for example, but when we suffer, that truth doesn’t sink in. We wholeheartedly proclaim that the love of the Lord is better than life, but when a very precious thing is taken away, His love feels bitter. As we just discussed in our women’s night dinners, we may be able to answer every question about our identity as saints in a theologically accurate way, but still, in the lonely moments of doubt, we do not feel the smile of the Father.  

Most of us have been, will be, or are currently walking in these places for a season. Even after many such seasons, I still ponder the question, “How do I transfer theological knowledge to resonate within my heart and soul?” Many have asked this question and advised various methods to resolve the disconnect. Yet, there is no magical method or secret sauce. However, there is encouragement to those who may be in this confusing season when heart and mind feel miles apart.  

People have used many methods to actively transform the heart to resound with the confident truth within one’s mind. The Psalms share some of this methodology. Many psalms begin with the bewilderment of a soul disconnected from the theological beliefs which the psalmist is fighting to believe, but end with the settled decision to test and choose to trust what he knows until his heart believes. The Proverbs, likewise, give us a model to follow in proving the wisdom of the truth and walking in it. The Bible hinges upon the stories of faith regardless of feelings, responses, or external realities in order to run well and live in the peace of God. 

Paul fills pages with the discussion of this crucial and challenging practice of the Christian life. In Romans chapter one, he tells us that God has “given up” the unrighteous (unregenerate/unrepentant) to a debased mind. In the Greek, adokimos nous, means a mind, nous, which is unable to test the worth or is found lacking, adokimos. Colossians 1:21 also says that the Colossians were once “hostile in mind,” which is similar language to Romans 8 where Paul says that unbelievers have “minds set on things of the flesh.” Clearly, the noetic (that is, intellectual) effects of sin comprehensively disable a properly functioning mind.  

Later in chapter 12, Paul tells us to “be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” The Greek word for discern, dokimazo, meaning to properly test and approve what is worthy, tells us that, as believers, our minds have been changed from those unable to test and approve what is worthy to those who can discern and test the worth and truth of a belief. Paul exhorts the saints repeatedly to “consider,” “test,” “discern,” “imitate,” “walk.” It seems, from what God’s Word shows us and what we observe in psychology and neurobiology, that we are whole persons—not a disjointed mind, heart, soul and body, but an organism in which all components intimately interact. What Paul seems to suggest is that our beliefs and our behaviors work together to cause the seeds of our theological beliefs to root and sprout in our souls. As Bradley Green puts it in a section of his book The Gospel and the Mind, “Redemption in its fullest sense is both something applied to us as a particular moment (it is punctiliar) and an ongoing process (it is progressive).” So, our ability to accurately know is renewed immediately in Christ and also progressively through sanctification, which also contributes to our ability to accurately resonate and feel the truth we want to know.   

In Andrew Naselli’s helpful book, Conscience, he discusses the role of the individual conscience. He first emphasizes that our conscience is a uniquely image-bearing gift that helps turn us from sin through guilt and toward joy through loving obedience. We bear God’s image in our personhood through our capacity for a conscience, an inherent moral code. In Naselli’s book, he discusses the layering of our beliefs and how our conscience interacts with those beliefs. “If your conscience is so sacrosanct that it’s off-limits even to God, that’s idolatry… Whenever ‘obey conscience!’ collides with ‘obey God!’ ‘obey God!’ must come out on top—every time. Thankfully a Christian with a well-calibrated conscience will rarely have to make this choice.” When Paul tells us to be transformed by the renewal of our minds, I think this is one part of his meaning. Our conscience must be taught and trained even while our minds are renewed through sanctification. 

I have spent many years in this thick fog. It has led to some of the darkest doubts but, surprisingly, also to the greatest contentment upon emerging from that fog. In my case, my conscience had formed judgments based on inaccurate beliefs that collided with God’s. Even after resolving those inaccurate beliefs, the work of correcting my conscience and rejecting false judgments was arduous. I believe the psalmist can help us as we untangle our judgments and beliefs, correcting them through truth, prayer, and practice. I think this is also the renewal of our minds that Paul speaks of in Romans 12.  

Whether it is our conscience, suffering, or uncertainties that reveal misaligned beliefs or require faith that defies our external realities, there are many ways our hearts and souls must be recalibrated to truth by “setting our minds” upon the things of the Spirit (Romans 8). God’s Word promises that His Spirit will help us in our weakness and meet us where we lack until our souls resound with the truth He has given us. My prayer for us at Redeemer and beyond is that we might become equipped to test our beliefs and practice recalibrating our souls to what God defines as true. I pray that we might walk in the confident freedom of our Savior’s smile, in a world that denies the existence of a soul and our need for it to align with the true and coherent vision of our Creator. May we help each other to this end.