Heart Plumbing

The idea expressed here is of a fountain.  If the water is clean and pure the fountain provides a clean and pure life, but if the water is foul and full of waste and disease, the fountain provides death and destruction.  The motives of the actions of any person can be tracked back to their heart condition.  This analogy sounds simple, but I’ve found this be a complicated thing.

Everyone’s heart is like a plumbing system.  It is being filled with something.  Either it is clean and pure water that flows quickly and it can be consumed for life or it is full of the worst of humankind.  Sometimes it can be some of both.  That is the complicated part.  Some people whom you know have wrong in them can do some very godly things.  However, if the wrong things are not addressed and held accountable to the authority of God, they will consume the person.  It is only a matter of time.

A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. – Luke 6:45

At my office one half of the building’s plumbing system is on a very gradual slope in the ground and it will back up at least once a year.  It starts so very gradual at first and it is hardly noticeable.  Then there might be a real back up that clears out and everything seems to work for a while, but at a less than ideal way.  Then it gets a little worse, but we all find a way around it.  Then worse still until we have waste in our office that can’t go anywhere.

Everyone seems to do this with their heart.  They know there is that little something here or over there, but it’s not that bad.  Before long, what once was not that bad is the normal and that little something is a something and not little, but we justify it in some way, it's not hurting anyone and we are happy.  Then it is a big something and it is bad and it creates evil that inevitably hurts others and ourselves.

When desire is conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. – James 1:15

Several blockbuster movies have portrayed this in a real meaningful way.  In Star Wars, Anakin Skywalker starts innocent enough, just wants to help.  Soon he becomes in conflict in his heart and he does good and a little evil.  Then he does more evil but sees it as good until finally he is Darth Vadar and does evil.  However, the evil isn't called evil but the dark side.

In the Lord of the Rings, this conflict inside a heart is a major theme.  Anyone who is near the Ring of Power becomes obsessed with the false power.  That power is evil and is really the work of an evil source.  The movie shows the conflict in Frodo as he carries this burden all the way to the mountain of Mordor to destroy it, but then finds he can't destroy it.  "It is mine" he declares until it is wrestled away and destroyed by Gollum who also dies holding it.

In both illustrations, the power of the darkness grows slowly until it finally consumes the person.  The evil that grows is also hidden and cast as a greater power and better for the person.  However, it is that evil that ultimately either almost costs them their life or does costs them their life.

Is there anything in your heart today that needs cleaning?  Is there something there that you allow to stay there that you know is not pure and of God?  Will you allow God to be the authority over all of your heart and actions?  You can trust His Words to be what is best for you.