0

All our lives we have heard sermons about giving our heart to God, a valid emphasis.  But whenever have you heard a sermon about giving your head to God?  I would dare say that for most of us that is a strange thought, but let’s try to think about it for a few moments.

Usually we imply that loving God is strictly an affair of the heart.  We have frequently been told that intelligence without goodness is a grave danger.  But we need to also know that goodness without intelligence is not enough.

If enough of our people, especially our youth, will dedicate both their hearts and their minds to God, we will have the capacity to solve many of the major problems of our world.

Think, for example, of a businessman who is interested not only in making money, but in serving his community.  He creates the kind of business that provides jobs, supports families, builds good will, and establishes bonds of trust between management and labor.  That kind of accomplishment comes from loving God with both the heart and the mind.

Think also of the potential for curing diseases that have afflicted the human race for centuries.  In recent years, the medical community has announced that smallpox has been wiped from the face of the earth.  That dread disease, which at one time killed thousands and marked hundreds of thousands, is no longer.  The consecrated heart alone did not accomplish that.  It also required the dedicated mind.

Now, it seems that many are holding their breath, waiting for word of other breakthroughs. Almost within reach are cures for cancer, heart disease, and other afflictions which a few years ago were thought to be hopeless.  What an exciting time to be alive, when religious devotion can be joined by knowledge and mount a combined assault on the enemies of mankind.

Can we not apply the same method to problems of hunger, unemployment, race relations, and international peace?  It is not enough that we want a better world.  We must love God with our minds.  We must apply our highest intelligence along with our deepest Christian devotion, if ever we are to have a world organized and mobilized for peace and prosperity.

If we cannot get a good world or a good society simply by being good people, neither can we get good homes by that method above.  It takes more than a good heart to make a good father or mother.  It also takes a good head.

The great failures of parents in rearing children are not, for the most part, sins of bad motive, but sins of bad judgement.  I think it is safe to say that most fathers and mothers love their children with their whole heart, but that is not enough; you must also love them with your mind.  Parents must bring and apply to their responsibility the   highest intelligence and common sense that God has given them.

Not only was Jesus good, and gracious, and kind but he was intelligent; he used His head, His common sense.  Wanted: Christians whose Christianity involves both the heart and the head.  Who will answer the call?  Maybe you and me!