The Heart is Where the World Changes

The band was ready. We had some great songs to play, we’d rehearsed, sound check was done, we were ready to go - for a regular Sunday, at least. But August 13 was not a regular Sunday. Just an hour up the road in Charlottesville, glass still lay in the gutters, broken batons and torn banners were being swept up and the Nazis (Nazis!) were still returning to wherever it is they come from. I was sitting there as the church filled and realized that none of our songs even came close to responding to the violence of the day before. Worst of all, right before the sermon, I was singing a duet: “Garden” by Matt Maher. “You stay with me, you never leave” it says, “you’re making my heart a garden.” I was singing about peaceful walks with God, and hearts turning into gardens while Charlottesville was still reeling from the dark heart of hatred that had left its red mark on the streets and sidewalks. It all sounded so empty, so laughably feeble in the face of truncheons and tear gas and Nazi slogans.

The message from the pulpit was clear – this was the time for action, a time to work for change in the world, to meet hatred and division with love and unity, but all I had to offer was a song about hearts and gardens. Then it came to me: when it comes to changing the world, no change happens unless it happens in the heart.

Petitions, demonstrations, legislation – there are many ways we try to change the world, but when you get down to it, nothing really changes unless the heart is changed. Legalizing same-sex marriage does nothing to really change the hearts of those opposed to it, but get to know a same-sex couple, work with them, hear their story? That’s when the world starts to change, one relationship, one heart at a time. Taking down statues removes the symbols of war and division, but divisions remain until conversations occur and relationships form. Love works better than legislation. Every time.

“You walk with me… You’re making my heart a garden”, the song said. Maybe it wasn’t so naïve, maybe it had a point. Maybe the only thing to do, the best way to be a follower of Christ, was to walk with each other, to know them, to love them as God loves them. This works: it’s happened to me and I’ll bet it’s happened to you. I’ve had barren corners of my heart, protected with logic, reasoned argument and even scripture, spring to life only because someone chose to walk in those dry places with me.

If the events that went down in Charlottesville sicken you, if you really want to change the world, then the only way to do it is heart by heart. You’re going to have to find a fascist, a racist, and you’re going to have to love that fascist, you’re going to have to get to know and walk with that racist, because a loving relationship is the water that grows a heart, that turns the barren desert into flower. It’s the story our scriptures tell and the story we keep living out in our lives – people will hate what they fear and destroy what they hate, but Jesus showed us that when you meet hatred with love, when you meet the darkness of ignorance and fear with light, the broken are healed, the blind see, the dead come to life and hearts become whole. Find broken and barren hearts, make gardens out of them. The world only changes heart by heart.