Heart versus head

The last time Brett Favre threw a pass in the heat of a real game it was intercepted by New Orleans cornerback Tracy Porter to save the NFC championship game for the Saints, sending that game into overtime. Favre never got the ball in overtime as the Saints drove down the field, making a fourth-and-1 conversion at one point, before kicking a field goal that send the Saints to the Super Bowl.

I've watched the NFC Championship game two or three times since, and I have a hard time believing to this minute that the Saints won that game. If not for the turnovers, the Saints do lose it. I guess whether or not you believe they were indeed take-aways as opposed to turnovers makes you believe the Saints won that game versus the Vikings losing it.

It's heart versus head.

Religion is a lot like that.

Let me explain. I teach a couple of Bible studies, and in those studies (for a total of about 18 people at most), they all believe with their heads that Jesus was the Christ, that he was cruficied, dead and buried and on the third day he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven.

They believe that though they have never seen a risen from the dead person, much less Jesus the Christ. That's head believing. It's not easy, but it's easier than is heart believing.

Heart beliving is this: "But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth?" Galatians 5: 5-7. OR ow about this passage found in Hebrews 11:1? "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."

The key word that distinguishes head believing versus heart believing is SURE. If you are SURE, of what you hope for and CERTAIN of what you do not see, I suggest it is heart beliving. The kind of belief that does more than follow a logical path. In fact, the path is a bit illogical, but you believe it anyway.

It is not logical to believe in the Virgin Birth.
It is not logical to believe in shepherds coming to see the baby or tax collectors getting a seat at the table or 12-year-olds learning and lecturing the rabbis.
It is not logical for the Messiah to be crucified to death.
Nor is it logical for that same Messiah to be raised from the dead, to ascend to heaven to sit at the right hand of God the Father.
It is not logical.

But it is our experience. It happened. I am SURE of what I believe and I am CERTAIN that belief will one day turn to sight.

The disciples all believed with their hearts, so much so that they died for their beliefs. If they were wrong, don't you think they would have surrendered that belief, or that lie as it were, before the Lions got an appetizer? I sure would have. But they didn't fall back one step. They believed with their hearts, which in Jewish life around the turn of the millenium was where the emotions were kept. In the heart.

So let's go all the way back to that long-ago football game. I believe with all my HEART that the Saints can beat the Vikings Thursday night. I believe with my HEAD that it can happen. Am I SURE? Nope. Let's see, it's 43 years of disappointment and losses versus one Super Bowl victory.

But in my HEART, I believe they can.

Sometimes that's all you're gonna get.