Forward Heart - 2

12-04-09

Proverbs 17:20
The circumstances leading to misfortune are seldom recognized but the experiences of the misfortune are often clear. What cause good and bad experience? What could be done to promote more of the enjoyable and less of the unfortunate? What part does the heart have in all of this? Proverbs provides answers.

Reality is often developed from what is experienced in life. The heart plays a crucial role in our experiences and quite often acts as the starting point for life’s explorations. The success rate of finding answers or addressing concerns on these explorations is often very high. Fortunately, or unfortunately in some cases, the exploration is guided by the contents of the heart and this makes it possible for the heart to pursue something which may not exist. The heart, to a certain extent, finds what is set up to find.

The first part of the verse speaks about the forward heart, meaning perverse heart. This person is a thinker who carefully plans to turn away from what is normal and reasonable. There usually isn’t justification for action and it is near to impossible to make sense of what or why things are done. To have froward qualities in the heart prevents the finding of good. Even though attempts could be mane to search and acquire good, the efforts will be in vain.

Among the most notable findings in the verse is the heart’s innate ability to establish its own desired functionality. So as the froward heart searches for good, it does so in the non-rational, insensible and awkward way. In order to find good the heart would have to get rid of the forwardness, without doing so it will be lead to where good does not exist. To find good one must search where good exist.

It is noted that the heart is the advocate for finding and establishing reality, which in turn depicts the quality of life. To limit the circumstances leading to misfortune, ensure that the heart does not have perversity.