Positioning The Heart

Galatians 6: 7-9 "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart."

Jeremiah 29:13 "You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart."

"Until you can say in your heart, “Only I and God are in the world,” you will not be at peace." - St. Allois

When I was in an Evangelical Christian and younger, there seemed to be the ongoing debate of whether or not it was okay to listen to music that wasn't explicit Christian. Was it pleasing to God? Does He care? I remember in college a student gave a lecture in which he said," There is no secular and sacred music. There is only music." I will let you know right now that I think that's nonsense. I think it's more of what a professor of mine said, in that you cannot lean either way, whether it be in blindly taking in everything or in trying to live an utterly sanitized existence. Both are incorrect for a Christian

There may be yet another dimension that we have not considered: personal desire. I remember once talking to friend about this subject in college. I said something along the lines of it not really being a matter of whether or not you think it is good, but ultimately about what you yourself have desired.

We cannot expect ourselves to have a desire for Christ if we have not positioned our hearts and lives toward that goal. This goes beyond music of course and into every other area of life. We cannot lament about our spiritual lives for half an hour while we spent the previous chunk of our waking lives in neglect of meditation of the fathers and scriptures, while we did not attempt to practice the Jesus Prayer, while we did not pray for the world or every person our eyes fell upon. As Met. Anthony Bloom has said:

We complain that He does not make Himself present to us for the few minutes we reserve for Him, but what about the twenty-three and a half hours during which God may be knocking at our door and we answer, ‘I am busy, I am sorry,’ or when we do not answer at all because we do not even hear the knock at the door of our heart, of our minds, of our conscience, of our life. So there is a situation in which we have no right to complain of the absence of God, because we are a great deal more absent than He ever is. (Beginning To Pray)

This is where I see where the question of what to watch or listen to comes in. What do we ultimately want? We must be honest with what we do with our time. If prayer is a chore, the scriptures are unappealing, the fathers having no place in the schedule of our lives, we must be honest with what we want. Is Christ truly real? It seems that questions of media consumption come up as distractions from what we most likely already know we should be doing. Rarely does it have to do with time, but in all honesty, laziness, malaise and lack of desire.

Beloved, beware of prelest, do not create a false spiritual life for yourself internally that does not exist your being. We must embrace reality, see the truth our situation and cry out, "I believe! Help my unbelief."

We Orthodox have been given many tools and practices that are a worthy foundation. We have the akathists, the canons, the rules of prayer, prayer robes, the fathers, sayings, icons, incense, the services, we have an abundance of ready made times and opportunities to be charitable with our money and our time (for the scriptures say, "He who give to the poor lends to the Lord), we have within each of us the creative faculties to produce small works, productive hobbies that build for us something of significance. Perhaps now more than ever, it is untrue of us to say we do not know where to start.


A song that fits: