it's all in your head

A couple months ago, one of my teachers mounted his soapbox to mock all "heart language." By this I mean any words or phrases that imply that the heart plays any role in personality or emotions. For example, "to believe with your whole heart" or to "be heartbroken" or to experience "heartache." He declared such speech to be laughable and quite silly, since we now know that the heart is not the source of our emotions-- the limbic system in our brain is. The heart is no more than a pump. It is no more capable of feeling than teeth are of tasting or eyes are of smelling.

It caused me to wonder, so then why is there so much talk within the Christian community about the disconnect between our hearts and our minds? If the heart's only purpose is to keep our lifeblood flowing, then is it even possible for us to "have our hearts in it"? What if the problem isn't with our hearts, but with our brains-- our minds?

In Jeremiah 17:9 we read: "The heart is deceitful above all else and beyond cure: who can understand it?" But in reality, the heart is easy to understand. It's one of the first organs we learn about because it is so simple. We fully understand how it works and for the most part we understand its pathology; we know how to fix it. The brain on the other hand, is an enigma that even the most brilliant scholars have yet to solve. One of my professors has been a neurophysiologist for about as long as I've been alive, and yet he has contemplated giving up because the brain still remains beyond his comprehension. There are so many neurological disorders that we can barely understand, much less begin to design a cure for.

But if the heart isn't capable of feeling, then why does the Bible state that we should "love the LORD with all [our] heart, mind, and strength"? I think we often accept the Bible to be dictated by God, rather than simply being inspired by him. Maybe God didn't mean for us to love with our hearts also. Maybe He just wanted us to love with our entire being. And since people thought the heart to be the "wellspring of life" and the center of emotions, the heart snuck in there.

I don't think this really changes anything. I just thought it was interesting that a possible misnomer could be so prevalent. There's still a disconnect somewhere, just maybe not in the infamous heart-mind realm. Even so, the language probably won't change. It's so much more poetic to talk about matters of the heart now. The brain is just a cold, grey, convoluted mass. Imagine if that were the central feature of Valentines and all things love-related.