Head - Heart - Gut


What goes on within a person that determines who they are and who they become?

Thus my title, head, heart and gut. It starts in the head with the increase of knowledge. This knowledge comes from reading, watching, and studying a particular subject, be it math and science, art and literature, economics and government, or medicine and the psycho-sciences. Depending on how you are “wired” (and that’s a totally deep subject of its own), your interests will cause more and more desires, and more and more knowledge of that particular subject.

After you get more and more knowledge, you have a decision to make. What will I do with this knowledge? Is it just random knowledge or will the study lead to new discoveries? Will I create a game like Trivial Pursuit? Will I discover the newest “black hole”? But most of all, who am I becoming by the results of this knowledge? Even though, “It’s not about me” … “It’s about me”. Who I am as a person will greatly determine what I do with all the “head knowledge” I have accumulated.

Thus, it becomes a heart issue. You know, that deep “thing” within all of us, that makes us… us; different from all others, that persona, that personality, that ego, that soul. The phrase, “I am what I eat” is better described as “I am what I think”. As I often use the Bible as a reference, because it has so many good thoughts on life, one passage says, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he”. That thinking is not just the intellectual aspect, but that deep seated, inner person.

Which brings us to the gut. What is it, in your life that keeps you going? What keeps you motivated? What deep churning within you seems to have you restless? What keeps you unsettled in your longings? That’s the “gut” issue. I’m not saying you stay up nights worrying, but there is that unrest in your soul, “gut”, that there is more. Then, the term ‘gut check” comes to mind. To me that means, something is not right and I need to take a step back and refocus and rethink all that’s going on. I need to get back to basics and look at the issue from a new perspective. What are the basics that you return to when things seem “out of sorts”?


A few things come to mind.

1. There is a God. The world is too complex to have “just happened”. Some say that random atoms collided and that started it all. Where did the two atoms come from? What would have happened if three atoms collided simultaneously? What was the DNA of those two atoms? Can the DNA of a rock be the same as that of a person?

2. This God has plan and purpose for His creation. Our responsibility is to find this God and find his plan and purpose. Again the Bible, “The heavens declare the glory of God and the earth shows forth His handy work”.

3. Man took it upon himself to try to run things and ruined things. Interesting words run and ruin… the only difference is the “ I ” in the middle.

4. God’s purpose was not thwarted. Enter Jesus, “stage left”. And as they say, “the rest is history, His Story”.

What’s your gut telling you?

Following the Shepherd,

Ron