A few months ago, Kimberly and I attended a Phil Wickham concert. Besides being a fantastic concert, he said something that stuck in my thoughts. He said he asked God to remove from his heart the things that could not go with him to heaven. That was big to me then, and it got bigger as I have recently had several doctors explain my mortality. They are addressing bacteria that somehow made it into my bloodstream – and that doesn’t play  well with my mechanical heart valve. This has been a perspective builder.

Twelve years ago, I moved from ministry into project management and I continue as a project manager in my day job. It was for the right reason, but some wounds occurred in the process over the past 10 years – and I became so angry with God. Thankfully, I have grown through most of that and I have complete confidence in my post death destination. With all that, I stole Mr. Wickham’s thoughts and I want to get the things out of my heart that can’t go with me.

That would make a nice jingle and I think it sounds really cool. What does it mean to get things out of my heart that can’t go with me to heaven?  Life moves at such a fast pace that the concept of getting things out of my heart, my mind… this ebbs and flows like a tide that comes and goes. At some points I’m as committed as ever to cleaning up my mind, and at other times it moves into the background, drowned out by the urgency of life.

I’ve settled on stuffing my heart with as many good things as I can to leave little – hopefully progressively less – room for what doesn’t belong.  It’s not really new. A guy named Paul wrote about it roughly 2,000 years ago. He said to live by the Spirit and it will bear the Fruit of the Spirit. I’m working on giving that a go. I’ll let you know how it goes.